John Doerr

Doerr and his wife, Ann Doerr, have donated to left-of-center environmentalist causes through their foundation, the Benificus Foundation. While he was once a Republican, Doerr’s political donations have supported the Democratic Party for more than 20 years.

Early Life and Education

John Doerr was born in 1951 into a middle-class family in St. Louis. He cites his entrepreneurial father as an inspiration for his future career. ²

Doerr earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Rice University and later a master’s in business administration at Harvard University. ²

Career

John Doerr moved to Silicon Valley in the mid-1970s “to find my ex-girlfriend and to get a job somewhere in the computer industry.” In 1974, Doerr began working at Intel and later became one of the company’s top salespersons. ^{3 4}

In 1980, Doerr joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers as a “gopher” with the intention of getting funding for his own planned company, Silicon Compilers, a graphics card manufacturer. Doerr took a leave of absence from Kleiner Perkins to launch the company until he passed off his management duties to return to Kleiner Perkins. Doerr later left Kleiner Perkins a second time to run Sun Microprocessors, but returned because he preferred venture-capital work. ⁴

Throughout his time at Kleiner Perkins, Doerr has invested in Sun Microsystems, Amazon, Google, Intuit, Macromedia, Symantec, Netscape, Compaq, Drugstore, Zynga, Doordash, Slack, and Twitter. ^{5 6 7} Doerr has expressed regret for not investing in Tesla, calling it “the worst investment decision of all time.” He eventually rose to partner and chairman of Kleiner Perkins. ⁸

In the early and mid-2000s, Doerr led Kleiner Perkins to invest in numerous weather-dependent energy companies. Many of these companies failed in the 2010s due to the falling price of natural gas. ⁷

In 2012, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao launched a high-profile sexual discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins. Pao came to Kleiner Perkins in 2005 as a junior partner and worked as chief of staff for Doerr. Though Doerr was not directly implicated in the allegations, he denied any wrongdoing by the firm. ^{9 10} At the trial, Doerr testified against Pao. ¹¹

In 2015, Doerr joined the board of the Obama Foundation. As of that year, Doerr was on the boards of Google, Zynga, and Amyris. ¹² In the past, Doerr has been on the boards of Amazon, Healtheon, Intuit, Macromedia, Netscape, Shiva, and Sun Microsystems. ¹³

In 2016, Doerr stepped down from his leadership role at Kleiner Perkins, but remains involved with the firm. ⁷

Doerr is on the board of One.org, a social justice NGO. ¹⁴

New Schools Venture Fund

In 1998, John Doerr, Kim Smith, and Brook Byers founded the New Schools Venture Fund, a nonprofit that raises funds for K-12 schools on a venture-capital model. Many of the fund’s recipients are charter schools. ^{15 16}

Family

Doerr is married to Ann Doerr. Ann chairs Khan Academy, sits on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund, and is the president of the Benificus Foundation, the Doerrs’ philanthropic foundation. ¹⁷Ann Doerr is a Democratic megadonor, contributing to organizations including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Hillary Action Fund, which supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s (D) unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign. ¹⁸

Philanthropy

Since 1997, John Doerr and his wife, Ann Doerr, have made donations through the Benificus Foundation. According to Inside Philanthropy, the foundation “is not accessible or approachable. It prefers a proactive grantmaking approach and maintains a low profile. it also does not accept unsolicited proposals.” ^{17 19}

The Doerrs have signed the Giving Pledge to promise to give most of their fortune to philanthropic causes. Regarding their philanthropic goals, Doerr has said, “Climate and sustainability is the most important of our causes.” ²⁰ The Benificus Foundation has also donated to homeless shelters, food banks, hospitals, and public health groups. ¹⁷

In 2015, Doerr gave $50 million to Rice University to start a leadership program. ²¹

In 2022, John and Ann Doerr gave $1.1 billion to Stanford University to launch a new school on climate change called the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. The donation was the second largest in history to an academic institution at that time. ⁷

Political Beliefs

According to a 1997 article, John Doerr was a Republican at the time. ²²

John Doerr supports left-wing environmental causes, including combatting climate change. Doerr has said that he was brought to his environmental positions after watching former Vice President Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth. In 2007, Gore joined Doerr’s firm, Kleiner Perkins. ⁷

In 2017, Doerr delivered a Ted Talk entitled “Salvation (and profit) in greentech.” ²³

In 2021, Doerr published, “Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now,” in which he lays out a “10-step plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.” ^{7 24} According to a review by Inside Philanthropy, Doerr primarily advocates for combating climate change through concentrated donations and business activity by “billionaires and corporate outfits.” Doerr blames a lack of progress on fighting climate change on energy companies like Exxon Mobil and the Koch brothers. ²⁵

Political Activity

In 1997, Doerr stated that he has no aspirations to run for office. ¹³

Also in 1997, Doerr organized “300 high-tech luminaries” to endorse national reading and math standards set by the U.S. Department of Education. That year, Doerr met with President Bill Clinton (D) and Vice President Al Gore (D) more than ten times as an “unofficial advisor” primarily regarding technology policy. Doerr also co-founded TechNet, a PAC representing Silicon Valley tech workers. ¹³

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Doerr led a series of California referendum efforts. Doerr was co-chair of California’s Proposition 39, which lowered the threshold for approving local school bonds, thereby raising $23 billion to fund public schools. Doerr also co-chaired Proposition 71, which authorized $3 billion in funding for stem cell research. Doerr co-chaired No on Proposition 211, successfully defeating a proposal to loosen regulations on litigation regarding retirement savings. ²⁶

Doerr successfully advocated for the creation of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) which develops pandemic preparedness strategies for the United States. ²⁶

In 2006, Doerr and a group of entrepreneurs successfully advocated for the passage of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, which established a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the state. ²⁶

In 2009, President Barack Obama (D) appointed Doerr to the U.S.A. Economy Recovery Advisory Board. ⁶

In 2011, Doerr hosted a “billionaire’s dinner” to raise money for President Obama’s reelection that featured Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Carol Bartz, John Chambers, Dick Costolo, Reed Hastings, Art Levinson, and Eric Schmidt. ²⁷

In October 2014, Doerr hosted a fundraiser at his home for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that featured U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Mark Begich (D-AK), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). ²⁷

In June 2017, Doerr attended a meeting at the White House to discuss modernizing American government technology. ²⁸

Doerr was a founding backer of Fwd.us, a PAC founded by Mark Zuckerberg. ²⁹

Political Contributions

Since 1982, John Doerr has contributed more than $8 million to federal candidates and PACs. Doerr’s largest-ever contribution was for $750,000 to the Senate Majority PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership in 2014, followed by $500,000 to Priorities USA Action in 2016. Doerr gave almost $420,000 to President Joe Biden’s (D) 2024 reelection campaign and almost $358,000 to President Biden’s 2020 campaign. Other major contributions include over $300,000 to a PAC supporting U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in the 2024 election cycle, almost $261,000 to a PAC supporting U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the 2022 election cycle, and $250,000 to the Mayday PAC in 2014. ³⁰

As of September 2023, Doerr has given $1,199,315 to federal candidates and PACs in 2023. ³⁰

In 2026, John Doerr contributed $2 million to a California-based political action committee opposing a proposed wealth tax on individuals with net worth above $1 billion. The committee supported ballot initiatives designed to block or modify the proposal. ³¹

Controversy

John Doerr hired William “Rick” Singer to assist his daughter in the college application process. In 2019, Singer was caught in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Operation Varsity Blues, which uncovered numerous instances of fraud and bribery involving Singer and college admissions offices to get the children of wealthy clients into schools. Doerr and fellow Kleiner Perkins partner Ted Schlein, who also hired Singer, denied any involvement in Singer’s illegal activity and no charges were filed against them. ³²