Monday, February 9, 2009

Obama names valley tech leaders John Doerr, Charles Phillips to economic recovery board

From our post "Obama Shelves Jobs-Credit Proposal":
I figured that bit was put in the plan as payback for Silicon Valley bigwigs backing him* for the Dem. nomination and in the general election.
(Hillary won the primary in Santa Clara county 54.8% to 39.3%).
Oh well, I'm sure Sand Hill Road will be getting something else.
Our headline story from the San Jose Mercury News:

President Barack Obama on Friday named celebrated venture capitalist John Doerr and Oracle President Charles E. Phillips to his new 16-member Economic Recovery Advisory Board that will, as the president put it, "enlist voices ... from beyond the Washington echo chamber."

Led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, the committee includes corporate CEOs, labor leaders and university economists, including Laura D'Andrea Tyson of University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business. The board is expected to meet regularly and "provide advice directly to the president on the programs to jump-start economic growth and facilitate economic stability," the White House said in a news release.

Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, forged a notable friendship with former Vice President Al Gore in the 1990s and is recognized as one of the world's leading venture investors, having seeded such companies as Intuit, Sun Microsystems, Amazon and Google....MORE