Woman Loses Silicon Valley Discrimination Case

A technology chief executive has lost her $16m sex discrimination lawsuit against a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

Gender was not a substantial reason that Ellen Pao lost her job at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, found the six men and six women of the San Francisco jury.

Nor did the firm retaliate against the plaintiff in failing to promote her to senior partner, said the verdict.

The result came after more than two days of deliberation and over four weeks of testimony in the closely watched case.

The 45-year-old plaintiff, now interim chief executive of social news website Reddit, had testified she and other women were passed over for advancement and endured harassment in a male-dominated culture at Kleiner.

Ms Pao, who has a law degree and MBA from Harvard, said male senior partners took the credit for her work on successful investments.

But Kleiner said she was fired from her $560,000-a-year job in October 2012 because she lacked leadership and interpersonal skills.

She alleged the discrimination began after she complained about harassment from married male colleague Ajit Nazre, with whom she says she was pressured into having an affair in 2006.

Ms Pao, who joined Kleiner in 2005, has testified that she and other women were barred from work trips on private jets and ski resorts.

She also said she was not invited to an important Kleiner dinner with former US Vice President Al Gore.

More follows...