Thomas Perkins Biography and Business Career

Thomas Perkins was a renowned American businessman and venture capitalist, best known for co-founding Kleiner Perkins, a leading venture capital firm. He was a pioneer in the field of venture capital and played a significant role in shaping the industry.

Perkins graduated from Stanford University in 1958, where he earned a degree in economics. He went on to serve in the United States Navy before embarking on his business career.

Born on June 1, 1932, in San Francisco, California, Perkins grew up in a wealthy family and was raised with a strong sense of entrepreneurship.

Tom Perkins' early contributions to venture capital are a testament to his innovative spirit and risk-taking approach. He founded Kleiner Perkins in 1972 with partner Eugene Kleiner.

Tom's experience with his laser company at HP had made him a multimillionaire, but he didn't leave HP right away. He was fascinated by the computer business, which was growing explosively at 30 to 40% a quarter.

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Tom and Kleiner's approach to venture capital was a formula that clearly worked. They hit "two major home runs" with Tandem Computers and Genentech, which they started themselves and spun out of the partnership.

In a properly structured venture, you put the risk upfront, and if you can't get rid of it with the initial money, then it should and will fail. That's okay, because you haven't lost much money.

At Kleiner Perkins, the company would be sent to the ICU, an intensive process intended to stop the bleeding.

On a similar theme: Kleiner Perkins

Thomas Perkins was one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley.

He co-founded the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers in 1972.

Perkins played a major role in the formative years of the computer and biotech industries.

As a pioneer in the venture capital industry, Perkins helped entrepreneurs realize their visions with operating expertise.

The firm that bears his name went on to fund some of the biggest names of the internet era, including Google and Amazon.

Perkins helped jump-start the biotech industry emerging in Silicon Valley during the 1970s with his investment in drug developer Genentech.

He also played a central role in the funding and development of firms including Tandem Computers, Compaq Computer and LSI Logic.

Perkins served on the board of numerous companies including Hewlett Packard.

He came under sharp criticism in 2014 for an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he equated the Occupy movement's "demonization of the rich" to the Nazis' persecution of the Jews.

Perkins was 84 years old when he died at his home in Tiburon, California, of natural causes.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers co-founders Brook Byers and Frank Caufield called Perkins a pioneer who witnessed the "start of the biotech industry and the computer revolution."

Perkins defined what we know of today as entrepreneurial venture capital by going beyond just funding to helping entrepreneurs realize their visions with operating expertise.

The firm he helped co-found, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, confirmed the news of his passing to NPR.

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Thomas Perkins received a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1953.

He earned an MBA from Harvard University in 1957, going on to be mentored by the influential Georges Doriot while attending MIT.

Thomas Perkins was a pioneer in the venture capital industry, and one of his notable achievements was helping to finance Amazon.com and Sun Microsystems. He co-founded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture-capital firm that provided early financing to these technology giants.

Perkins' firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, was instrumental in the Silicon Valley boom that ushered in the Internet Age, investing in tech companies over the next two decades. He was a key player in the firm's success, leaving his job at Hewlett-Packard to establish Menlo Park, California-based Kleiner Perkins with Austrian-born engineer Eugene Kleiner in 1972.

Opening with $8 million, the firm went on to invest in many successful companies, and Perkins' involvement helped shape the tech industry into what it is today.

Perkins received a B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1953. He went on to earn an MBA from Harvard University in 1957.

Perkins joined the Delta Upsilon fraternity while attending MIT. His mentorship under Georges Doriot had a significant impact on his life and career.

Perkins was the subject of a 2007 60 Minutes special titled "Captain of Capitalism", which highlighted his memoir and featured a tour of his yacht.

Thomas Perkins resigned from HP's board on May 18, 2006, over the actions taken by the board's chair, Patricia C. Dunn, to ferret out the board-level source of media leaks using methods Perkins considered unethical and possibly illegal.

Perkins's residential phone records were obtained through a method known as pretexting, where someone pretended to be him using his phone number and Social Security Number. HP confirmed that the investigative firm they hired used pretexting to obtain information on the call records of the directors.

HP's board decided on August 31, 2006, to not renominate Dr. George Keyworth for another term as director after he admitted to leaking information but refused to resign.

Perkins resigned from HP's board on May 18, 2006, over the actions taken by the board's chair, Patricia C. Dunn, to ferret out the board-level source of media leaks using methods Perkins considered unethical and possibly illegal.

HP's investigation found that Dr. George Keyworth was the source of several leaks.

The board decided on August 31, 2006, to not renominate Keyworth for another term as director.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the State of California began inquiries into the methods used by HP to investigate its directors.

HP gave no cause in the SEC-required 8-K filing, and according to Perkins refused to amend the filing to indicate his reasons for resigning.

Perkins disclosed his reasons publicly, triggering an SEC investigation and significant media interest into HP's leak-finding activities.

Perkins sat on the board of directors of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, alongside Viet D. Dinh and Joel Klein. Dinh represented Perkins in the HP board affair.

In July 2011, Dinh and fellow News Corp. board member Joel Klein took over the investigation of the News of the World phone hacking affair and related Corporation issues. Perkins' prior experience with phone-hacking in the HP scandal made him a likely candidate to help News Corp. resolve its own scandal.

Perkins did not stand for reelection to the News Corp board for the fiscal year of 2012.

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