2007 Nobel Prize Winner and 2000 Presidential election winner Al Gore has another notch on his belt -- partner at Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm -- Kleiner Perkins. (Thanks to the Supreme Court, Gore -- who won the 2000 Presidential vote -- did not serve.)
But he handled the disappointment well. His work on the documentary An Inconvenient Truth -- easily the highest payoff PowerPoint presentation ever made -- has helped make the world aware of the threat it faces from global warming and what people can do about it. Gore insightfully points out that climate change is a matter of war and peace. It has created conflict -- the drying up of a lake in Sudan contributed to genocide there and the melting of the polar icecap has set off an international sea grab at the top of the world.
So what's the deal with Gore at Kleiner Perkins? According to the New York Times, President-elect Gore's part-time job at Kleiner will be to assess the potential of alternative energy companies and to opine on whether Kleiner Perkins should invest in them. Gore plans to donate his salary from the venture to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit policy foundation. But he was not clear about whether he'd get the partner's share of the 2% of assets under management and 20% of the profits from successful "exits."
He was clearer about his political aspirations -- noting "I don't expect to be a candidate again."
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.
