John Doerr of Kleiner says he’s sorry for offensive joke about new partners’ names

Oh, you white men of Silicon Valley.

It appears efforts to redress the lack of women and minorities in Silicon Valley, particularly in the ultra-clubby world of venture capital, still have a long way to go.

Exhibit A: Yesterday, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, fresh off a bruising and embarrassing lawsuit over his firm’s treatment of a former female partner, decided to make light of his new partners’ names.

Their names: Muzzammil Zaveri and Swati Mylavarapu.

So, a venture capitalist walks onto a Techcrunch Disrupt stage and says:

https://twitter.com/kimmaicutler/status/646433097945210880

Get it?

Guess those sensitivity training sessions didn’t get the hoped-for ROI.

Probably getting some flak from his flak, Doerr apologized on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/johndoerr/status/646450234747285504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Pro user tip: Next time put a period before the @ so more people will see the tweet: .@kimmaicutler. We understand. Twitter is damn complicated.

In any case, KPCB has clearly hired two worthy new partners. Zaveri was doing investments in the U.S. for China-based Internet giant Tencent. Mylavarapu was at Square and had previously been with Google.org and focused on mobile in sub-Saharan Africa and India through.

A couple of strong additions for a firm with global investment ambitions. Just going to be a bit awkward at the next KPCB golf tournament.

Source: Wall Street Journal