Ellen Pao Investment Partner (Digital)

Ellen Pao is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, having joined KPCB in 2005. A firm believer in the new levels of innovation being enabled by cloud infrastructure, application platforms and iterative development, Ellen brings that spirit of innovation to her focus areas of consumer and enterprise application and services platforms. She has also worked closely with KPCB China as a founding member of its investment committee. Ellen serves on the board of directors of Lehigh Technologies, Datameer and Flipboard, Inc.

Before coming to KPCB, Ellen held various operating roles at BEA Systems, including head of business development for products, site manager for new mobile products and lead for new engineering efforts in India. She also served in corporate development, where she led strategic projects for the CEO and M&A transactions. Prior to her BEA career, Ellen focused on business development and closed technology licensing transactions for Tellme Networks as one of its first 20 employees, as well as for Microsoft’s WebTV division. She also served as a consultant at MyCFO and at Danger Research, where she headed the Sidekick’s first marketing requirements efforts. Before entering the technology field, Ellen was a corporate attorney for Cravath, Swaine & Moore in the firm’s New York City headquarters and Hong Kong offices. She provided guidance on high-yield debt offerings, M&A transactions, aircraft financings and pro bono projects for Habitat for Humanity and Covenant House.

Ellen holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering and a certificate from the Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from Princeton University, as well as a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Complementing her KPCB position, she also served on the board of directors of the Apollo Alliance, a clean energy coalition, and she is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.