Tuesday, November 13, 2007

More on Al Gore, Venture Capitalist

From the New York Times:

...The alliance provides Mr. Gore an additional pulpit for his advocacy of environmental causes, but also gives the Nobel laureate an opportunity to nurture green businesses.

Venture capitalists said the move could help companies financed by Kleiner establish ties with big business and government, and obtain subsidies that encourage broader use of new technologies.

...For instance, Mr. Kedrosky said, Mr. Gore would now have a financial incentive to push for subsidies, like the tax incentives or rebates that have buoyed the solar industry, or to provide start-ups with important connections in government and big business.

...Mr. Gore “is a political rainmaker,” Mr. Kedrosky said. The association between Kleiner and Mr. Gore “just means that clean tech is an inherently political exercise.”...MORE

From the San Jose Mercury-News:

...Gore said his primary responsibility will continue to be chairman of Generation Investment Management, an investment research firm he co-founded in 2004, but "I'll do my best to pull my load at Kleiner Perkins."

Much of this participation will come via teleconference, said Gore, who maintains homes

in Tennessee and San Francisco. Gore joked about his growing expertise in using Polycom HD teleconference tools, which he described as a "low carbon emissions" way of working....MORE

From the New York Post:

Gore said he will donate his new salary as a Kleiner Perkins partner to the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Palo Alto think tank he launched to focus on solving the climate crisis by pushing for policy changes.

Stock options - typically where the real pay bonanza is for VCs - won't be part of his donation.

From the Associated Press:
The donation does not include stock options. Typically, a tiny fraction of a venture capitalist's compensation is salary; the vast majority of wealth comes from sale of stock options when the companies the firm invests in are sold to the public.

"It's one of the benefits of not being in the public sector anymore," Gore said with a laugh during an interview with The Associated Press.


From The Guardian:

...Generation's co-founder and managing partner, David Blood, said: "There is a significant gap between the capital needed and the capital currently deployed to create enduring solutions to the climate crisis. To address this financing gap will require the efforts of many players, including entrepreneurial ventures, multinational businesses, governments, multilaterals and investors."...MORE

See also:
Al Gore: Venture Capitalist ( Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers)