John Doerr
Encyclopedia
L. John Doerr is an American venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park, California
, in Silicon Valley
. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed as a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
to provide the president and his administration with advice and counsel in fixing America's economic downturn. Forbes
ranks Doerr as the 540th richest person in the world, with a net worth of US $2.2 billion.
and master's degree
in electrical engineering from Rice University
and an MBA from Harvard University
in 1976.
8-bit
microprocessor
. He eventually became one of Intel's most successful salespeople. He also holds several patents for memory devices.
He joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1980, and since then, has directed venture capital funding to some of the most successful technology companies in the world including Compaq
, Netscape, Symantec
, Sun Microsystems
, drugstore.com
, Amazon.com
, Intuit, and Google
, as well as Friendster
, GO Corp.
, and others.
, Google
, Amazon
, and Bloom Energy.
He currently serves on the board of Google and on the boards of private ventures Amyris Biotech
, Bloom Energy, iControl Networks, EGHC, Flo-Design, Miasole
, M2Z Networks, V Vehicle and Spatial Photonics. He seeded Twitter
nearly $150 million. His investment philosophy is "no conflict, no interest."
Doerr co-founded and serves on the board of the New Schools Venture Fund, an education reform
and charter public schools fund. And on TechNet, a policy network of high tech CEOs advocating education and litigation reform, and policies for the innovation economy. Doerr co-chaired California's Proposition 39 which lowered the threshold to approved school bonds, and Proposition 71 which created $3 billion funding for California research into stem cell
therapies. He serves on the board of Bono
's ONE campaign
to fight global poverty
, particularly disease in Africa. His success in venture capital has garnered national attention; he has been and is currently listed on Forbes
magazine's exclusive "Midas List" and is widely regarded as one of the top technology venture capitalists in the world.
Forbes magazine estimates his net worth to be well over $1 billion. Doerr is a high profile supporter of the Democratic Party
in Silicon Valley. Through the TechNet (lobbying organization)
he helped found, he has devoted much time and money towards impacting legislation beneficial to the technology industry.
Doerr advocates innovation in clean energy technologies to combat climate change
, and has written and testified on the topic. In a 2007 TED conference he cited his daughter's remark: "your generation created this problem, you better fix it" as a call to fight global warming
.
In 2008 he announced with Steve Jobs
the Kleiner Perkins $100 million iFund
, declaring the iPhone
"more important than the personal computer" because " it knows who you are" and "where you are." In April 2010, he along with another iFund
members announced an increase in iFund
's value by another $100 million dollars making iFund
the worlds biggest investment pool in cell phone application industry.
He had also funded the initial investments in Bloom Energy Inc.
with their children.
for his accomplishments in business.
In 2009, Doerr was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
In 2010, Doerr was inducted into the California Hall of Fame
.
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
, in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. In February 2009, Doerr was appointed as a member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, originally the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, is a panel of non-governmental experts from business, labor, academia and elsewhere that President of the United States Barack Obama created on February 6, 2009. The board reports...
to provide the president and his administration with advice and counsel in fixing America's economic downturn. Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranks Doerr as the 540th richest person in the world, with a net worth of US $2.2 billion.
Early life
One of five siblings, Doerr graduated from Chaminade College Preparatory in St. Louis. He obtained a Bachelor of ScienceBachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
and master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in electrical engineering from Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
and an MBA from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1976.
Career
Doerr joined Intel Corporation in 1974 just as the firm was developing the 8080Intel 8080
The Intel 8080 was the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and was released in April 1974. It was an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility...
8-bit
8-bit
The first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
. He eventually became one of Intel's most successful salespeople. He also holds several patents for memory devices.
He joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1980, and since then, has directed venture capital funding to some of the most successful technology companies in the world including Compaq
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
, Netscape, Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
, Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, drugstore.com
Drugstore.com
Drugstore.com is an Internet retailer in health and beauty care products headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. Its web operations were launched on February 24, 1999....
, Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, Intuit, and Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, as well as Friendster
Friendster
Friendster is a social gaming site that is based in Malaysia, KL. The company now operates mainly from the three Asian countries namely in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore....
, GO Corp.
GO Corp.
GO Corporation was founded in 1987 to create portable computers, an operating system, and software with a pen-based user interface. It was famous not only for its pioneering work in Pen-based computing but as well as being one of the most well-funded start-up companies of its time.Though the...
, and others.
Venture funding
Doerr funded NetscapeNetscape
Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, and Bloom Energy.
He currently serves on the board of Google and on the boards of private ventures Amyris Biotech
Amyris Biotech
Amyris is an integrated renewable products company providing sustainable alternatives to a broad range of petroleum-sourced products. Amyris uses its industrial synthetic biology platform to convert plant sugars into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules, flexible building blocks which can be used in...
, Bloom Energy, iControl Networks, EGHC, Flo-Design, Miasole
Miasolé
MiaSolé is a solar energy company developing Copper indium gallium selenide thin-film photovoltaic products. MiaSolé's manufacturing process lays CIGS on a flexible stainless steel substrate...
, M2Z Networks, V Vehicle and Spatial Photonics. He seeded Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
nearly $150 million. His investment philosophy is "no conflict, no interest."
Doerr co-founded and serves on the board of the New Schools Venture Fund, an education reform
Education reform
Education reform is the process of improving public education. Small improvements in education theoretically have large social returns, in health, wealth and well-being. Historically, reforms have taken different forms because the motivations of reformers have differed.A continuing motivation has...
and charter public schools fund. And on TechNet, a policy network of high tech CEOs advocating education and litigation reform, and policies for the innovation economy. Doerr co-chaired California's Proposition 39 which lowered the threshold to approved school bonds, and Proposition 71 which created $3 billion funding for California research into stem cell
Stem cell
This article is about the cell type. For the medical therapy, see Stem Cell TreatmentsStem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells...
therapies. He serves on the board of Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
's ONE campaign
ONE Campaign
The ONE Campaign is an international, nonpartisan, non-profit organization which aims to increase government funding for and effectiveness of international aid programs....
to fight global poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, particularly disease in Africa. His success in venture capital has garnered national attention; he has been and is currently listed on Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine's exclusive "Midas List" and is widely regarded as one of the top technology venture capitalists in the world.
Forbes magazine estimates his net worth to be well over $1 billion. Doerr is a high profile supporter of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in Silicon Valley. Through the TechNet (lobbying organization)
TechNet (lobbying organization)
TechNet is a United States political lobbying organization which represents public policy interests for technology issues. TechNet operates through a network of CEOs and Senior Executives to promote the growth of technology and the innovation economy...
he helped found, he has devoted much time and money towards impacting legislation beneficial to the technology industry.
Doerr advocates innovation in clean energy technologies to combat climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, and has written and testified on the topic. In a 2007 TED conference he cited his daughter's remark: "your generation created this problem, you better fix it" as a call to fight global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
.
In 2008 he announced with Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
the Kleiner Perkins $100 million iFund
IFund
The iFund is a US$200 million capital fund. Developers may enter into equity deals for the creation of applications, services, and components for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platform...
, declaring the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
"more important than the personal computer" because " it knows who you are" and "where you are." In April 2010, he along with another iFund
IFund
The iFund is a US$200 million capital fund. Developers may enter into equity deals for the creation of applications, services, and components for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platform...
members announced an increase in iFund
IFund
The iFund is a US$200 million capital fund. Developers may enter into equity deals for the creation of applications, services, and components for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platform...
's value by another $100 million dollars making iFund
IFund
The iFund is a US$200 million capital fund. Developers may enter into equity deals for the creation of applications, services, and components for Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platform...
the worlds biggest investment pool in cell phone application industry.
He had also funded the initial investments in Bloom Energy Inc.
Doerr and President Barack Obama
In February, 2009, Doerr was appointed as a member to the USA's President Barack Obama as Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the president and his administration with advice and counsel in fixing America's economic downturn.Personal life
Doerr is married to Ann Howland Doerr. They live in Woodside, CaliforniaWoodside, California
Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government. The U.S. Census estimated the population of the town to be 5,287 in 2010....
with their children.
Awards
In 1997, Doerr was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rice UniversityRice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
for his accomplishments in business.
In 2009, Doerr was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
In 2010, Doerr was inducted into the California Hall of Fame
California Hall of Fame
Conceived by First Lady Maria Shriver, the California Hall of Fame was established at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts to honor individuals and families who embody California’s innovative spirit and have made their mark on history...
.
External links
- Profile at KPCB
- John Doerr's opening speech in KPCB China 3 Years' Anniversary
- Profile at CrunchBase
- Doerr on The Past, Present and Future of Google
- Video - John Doerr interview with John Battelle
- KPCB Greentech Innovation Network 2007 – “Conversation with Al Gore and John Doerr”
- Google, negotiations and the merits of Mandarin Chinese, John Doerr speaking at Stanford University on February 2, 2005