John Doerr, the venerable venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins, apologized for a comment he made about the names of recent diverse hires at the venture firm:
Friends, my apologies. It was an unfortunate joke that was not funny. I have deep respect for my partners Swati and Muzzammil.
The stumble happened at TechCrunch s Disrupt San Francisco conference where Doerr spoke Tuesday about the company s diversity efforts, TechCrunch reported.
Doerr was referring to two new partners — Swati Mylavarapu, formerly of Square, and Muzzammil Zaveri, formerly of Tencent.
The reaction online was harsh:
you didn t make a joke about diversity, you made diversity a joke.
— Amanda Rosenberg (@AmandaRosenberg)
But some came to Doerr s defense:
. There s nothing wrong with what you said. I m all for diversity, tolerance. But let s not go overboard, folks.
Doerr said the firm is going through unconscious bias training and providing that training to its portfolio companies. It has produced its own diversity report, as we wrote.
Much of these efforts have come in the wake of the Ellen Pao sexual discrimination lawsuit. The firm won its case, but the trial brought scrutiny to the gender and ethnic makeup of the venture capital industry.
Kleiner has also recently hired Arielle Zuckerberg, 26, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg s youngest sister, as an associate partner, TechCrunch reported.
No mention of any difficulty pronouncing her name.
Above: John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. (Karen T. Borchers/Mercury News)
