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'{{Infobox person | name = Thomas Perkins | image = TechCrunch SF 2013 4S2A2023 (9725396803).jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Thomas James Perkins | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1932|1|7}}<ref>''Who's who in Finance and Industry Inc., Marquis Who's Who.'', 1989 edition, p. 601</ref> | birth_place = | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) --> | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = Co Founder of [[Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers]] | alma_mater = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] <small>([[Bachelor of Science|BS]])</small><br />[[Harvard University]] <small>([[Master of Business Administration|MBA]])</small> | occupation = [[Venture Capitalist]] | spouse = Gerd Thune-Ellefsen (m. ?–1994) [[Danielle Steel]] (1998–2002; divorced) }} '''Thomas James Perkins''' (born January 7, 1932) is an American businessman, [[capitalism|capitalist]] and was one of the founders of [[venture capital]] firm [[Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers]]. ==Biography== 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.<ref>Extensions of Remarks. Representative [[Anna G. Eshoo]], [http://icreport.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r103:E19AP4-338: ''In honor of Thomas J. Perkins inducted into the Business Hall of Fame by the Santa Clara County Chapter of Junior Achievement''.] Congressional Record. 103rd cong., 2nd sess., 1994, (19 April 1994): E715.</ref> While attending MIT, Perkins joined the [[Delta Upsilon]] Fraternity. Perkins was mentored by [[Georges Doriot]]. ===Career=== In 1963, he was invited by [[Bill Hewlett]] and [[Dave Packard]] to become the administrative head of the research department at [[Hewlett-Packard]]. He was the first general manager of HP's computer divisions, credited with helping shepherd HP's entry into the minicomputer business. During the 1960s, he also started [[University Laboratories]], which was later merged into [[Spectra-Physics]]. In 1973, with [[Eugene Kleiner]], he founded [[Kleiner Perkins|Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers]], one of the first [[Sand Hill Road]] venture capital firms. Later, [[Frank Caufield]] and [[Brook Byers]] joined the firm, eventually becoming named partners. Perkins served as a director of [[Applied Materials]], [[Compaq]], [[Corning Glass]], [[Genentech]], Hewlett-Packard, and [[Philips|Philips Electronics]].<ref>{{cite web | title=KPCB Biography of Tom Perkins | url=http://www.kpcb.com/team/index.php?26 | accessdate=2006-05-14 }}</ref> He served as the only chairman of [[Tandem Computers]], from its founding in 1974 until its 1997 merger with Compaq. Perkins was also chairman of Genentech from 1976 until 1990 when it merged with Roche Holding Ltd.<ref>{{cite web | title=Tom Perkins to Give Aspen Chairman's Address | date=August 1, 2005 | url=http://www.pff.org/news/news/2005/080105perkins-aspen.html }}</ref> During the HP/Compaq merger fight in 2001, Perkins was a member of the Compaq board and an outspoken supporter of the merger.<ref>{{cite news |author=Matt Marshall |title=Venture Capitalist Pushes Hewlett-Packard-Compaq Merger |date=December 23, 2001 |work=San Jose Mercury News }} </ref> He joined the HP Board of Directors in the merger, retired, and officially rejoined the HP board days before [[Carly Fiorina]] was fired from her posts as chairman and chief executive officer of HP. ====Resignation from HP Board==== {{main|Hewlett-Packard spying scandal}} 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.<ref>The comprehensive story of HP spying scandal along with critical discussion on involving corporate governance and ethical issues is available at {{cite web | url = http://www.scribd.com/doc/62262162/HP-Pretexting-Scandal | title = HP Pretexting Scandal by Faraz Davani | publisher = Scribd |date= 2011-08-14 | accessdate = 2011-08-15 | first1=Faraz | last1=Davani}}</ref> 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.<ref name="perkinsletter">{{cite news |title=Perkins Letter to HP Board |url=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJ_Perkins-to-HP.pdf |format=PDF | work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> In response, Perkins disclosed his reasons publicly, triggering an SEC investigation and significant media interest into HP's leak-finding activities.<ref name="wsj_leak">{{cite news |author=Christopher Lawton, Dionne Searcey and Shawn Young |title=H-P Faces Probe Over Its Inquiry Into Board Leaks |date=September 7, 2006 |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115758813903455834.html }}</ref><ref name="newsweek_leak">{{cite news |first=David A. |last=Kaplan |authorlink=David A. Kaplan |title=Intrigue in High Places |date=September 5, 2006 |work=Newsweek |url=http://www.newsweek.com/id/45735 |accessdate=2009-08-17 }}</ref> Perkins's residential phone records were obtained through a method known as [[pretexting]]. AT&T confirmed that someone pretended to be Perkins, using his phone number and his [[Social Security Number]].<ref name="perkinsattletter">{{cite news |title=Letter from AT&T to Tom Perkins regarding Pretexting |date=August 11, 2006 |url=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJ_ATT-to-Perkins.pdf |format=PDF | work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> HP confirmed that the investigative firm they hired used pretexting to obtain information on the call records of the directors.<ref name="hp8k20060906">{{cite news |title=HP 8-K Filing Reporting Leak Investigation |date=September 6, 2006 |url=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/HPSEC09062006.pdf |format=PDF | work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> HP's investigation found that Dr. [[George Keyworth]] was the source of several leaks. At the May 18, 2006 board meeting, Dr. Keyworth admitted to leaking information but refused to resign after the board passed a resolution calling for his resignation. HP's board decided on August 31, 2006 to not renominate Dr. Keyworth for another term as director. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the State of California have begun inquiries into the methods used by HP to investigate its directors. ====News Corp. board==== Perkins sat on the board of directors of [[Rupert Murdoch]]'s [[News Corporation]] where he served with [[Viet D. Dinh]]. 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.<ref>Doward, Jamie, Toby Helm, ''et al.'', [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/09/phone-hacking-scandal-rupert-murdoch "Phone-hacking scandal: is this the tipping point for Murdoch's empire?"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 9 July 2011 23.11 BST. Retrieved 2011-07-12.</ref> One business commentator, noting Perkins' prior experience with phone-hacking in the HP scandal, speculated that Perkins "may be [was the] best hope" as News Corp. sought to work out of its phone-hacking scandal.<ref>Goldfarb, Jeffrey, [http://blogs.reuters.com/columns/2011/07/11/tech-guru-may-be-best-hope-for-news-corp-holders/?pending=1&cp=0#comment-8074 "Tech guru may be best hope for News Corp holders"], Reuters [[Breakingviews]], July 11, 2011 16:25 EDT. Retrieved 2011-07-12.</ref> Perkins did not stand for reelection to the News Corp board for the fiscal year of 2012. ==Personal life== {{As of|2014}}, Perkins is worth an estimated $8 billion <!-- number is missing from here: (though he has stated publicly that his net worth is less than a $billion)--><ref>{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116350/venture-capitalist-tom-perkins-sees-kristallnacht-ahead-rich |title=Venture Capitalist Tom Perkins Sees Kristallnacht Ahead for the Rich |publisher=New Republic |date=2014-01-25 |accessdate=2014-07-15}}</ref> He has two children, with his first wife, the late [[Gerd Thune-Ellefsen Perkins|Gerd Thune-Ellefsen]]. After she died in 1994, he married romance novelist [[Danielle Steel]] in March 1998; her book ''The Klone and I'' (ISBN 0-385-32392-1) was about their friendship. They separated in August 1999 and were later amicably divorced.<ref name="wsjbook">{{cite news |author=Pui-Wing Tam and Jeffery A. Trachtenberg |pages=A1 |title=True Romance |date=January 14, 2006 |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113720636713746760.html }}</ref> In 1996, Perkins was convicted in France of [[involuntary manslaughter]] arising from a yacht-racing collision and was fined $10,000.<ref>{{cite web | first=Nick | last=Denton | title=Tom Perkins' manslaughter conviction | date=June 18, 2007 | accessdate=January 30, 2014 | work=[[Gawker]] | url=http://gawker.com/269896/tom-perkins-manslaughter-conviction }}</ref> Perkins was the subject of a 2007 ''[[60 Minutes]]'' special titled "Captain of Capitalism", which focused on his memoir and featured a tour of his yacht.<ref>Stahl, Lesley. [http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4143154n "Captain of Capitalism"]. ''60 Minutes''.</ref> He was also featured in the documentary film ''[[Something Ventured (film)|Something Ventured]]'', which premiered in 2011. ===Comments on wealth and class=== In January 2014, the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' published a letter from Perkins<ref name="Kristallnacht">{{cite news|last=Perkins|first=Tom|title=Progressive Kristallnacht Coming?|url=http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304549504579316913982034286|accessdate=January 25, 2014|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=January 24, 2014}}</ref> that compared the "progressive war on the American one percent" of wealthiest Americans and the [[Occupy movement]]'s "demonization of the rich" to the [[Kristallnacht]] and [[Anti-Semitism|anti-semitism]] in [[Nazi Germany]]: <blockquote>Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on the "one percent", namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich".</blockquote> The letter was widely criticized and condemned in ''[[The Atlantic]]'',<ref>{{cite news|last=Weissman|first=Jordan|title=Millionaire Apologizes for Comparing Progressives to Nazis, Says His Watch Is Worth a '6-Pack of Rolexes'|url=http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/millionaire-apologizes-for-comparing-progressives-to-nazis-says-his-watch-is-worth-a-6-pack-of-rolexes/283391/|work=[[The Atlantic]]|accessdate=January 28, 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Independent]]'',<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/billionaire-venture-capitalist-thomas-perkins-ridiculed-after-writing-letter-comparing-the-treatment-of-rich-americans-to-the-holocaust-9086096.html | title=Tom Perkins: Billionaire venture capitalist ridiculed after writing letter comparing the treatment of rich Americans to the Holocaust | work=[[The Independent]] | date=January 26, 2014 | accessdate=January 27, 2014 | author=Williams, Rob}}</ref> among bloggers, [[Twitter]] users, and "his own colleagues in [[Silicon Valley]]".<ref name="ross">{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Philip|title=Tom Perkins Responds To Nazi Germany And 1 Percent Criticism, Says Kristallnacht Was 'Terrible Word To Have Chosen'|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/tom-perkins-responds-nazi-germany-1-percent-criticism-says-kristallnacht-was-terrible-word-have|accessdate=January 29, 2014|newspaper=[[International Business Times]]|date=January 27, 2014}}</ref> Perkins subsequently apologized for making the comparisons with Nazi Germany, but otherwise stood by his letter, saying, "In the Nazi era it was racial demonization, now it's class demonization."<ref name="ross" /> A month after publication of the letter in the ''Wall Street Journal'', Perkins stated in a [[Commonwealth Club of California|Commonwealth Club]] interview (which can be seen on [[YouTube]])<ref>{{youtube|HYHiOc3TXNU|Commonwealth Club's INFORUM presents Tom Perkins: The War on the 1% (Feb 13, 2014)}}</ref> when asked at the ending for his 60 minute "Plan to Save the World" he said that he believed elections should be set up such that the number of votes a person can cast would be proportional to the amount of taxes that the person pays. Both Perkins, the moderator and the audience were laughing. In an interview afterwards, Perkins said "I intended to be outrageous, and it was."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/14/investing/tom-perkins-vote/index.html|first=Charles|last=Riley|date=February 14, 2014|title=Some of the media took his joke out of contest. Tom Perkins' big idea: The rich should get more votes|publisher=CNN}}</ref> ===Homes and yachts=== Perkins has houses in [[Belvedere, California|Belvedere, Marin County, California]],<ref>[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/02/19/070219fa_fact_stewart The World of Business : The Kona Files: Reporting & Essays] ''The New Yorker''</ref> and spends about two months a year at [[Plumpton Place]], his [[Elizabethan]] mansion in [[East Sussex]], England, which once belonged to [[Led Zeppelin]] guitarist [[Jimmy Page]].<ref name="STimes1" /> In 2010, he purchased the penthouse atop the Millennium Tower on Mission Street in [[San Francisco]]'s [[Financial District, San Francisco|financial district]]. In July 2006, he formally launched his {{convert|289|ft|adj=on}} sailing yacht named ''[[The Maltese Falcon (yacht)|The Maltese Falcon]]'', at the time, and still, the world's largest privately owned sailing yacht.<ref>{{cite web | title=Tom Perkins Thinks Big |date=February 2006 | publisher=Lisa Gosselin, Yachting Boats | url=http://www.yachtingmagazine.com/yachting/boatreviews/article/0,24579,1155296,00.html }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Maltese Falcon | publisher=Perini Navy (the yard, that built the ship) | url=http://www.perininavi.it/galleria.cfm?IdBarca=37# }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=The Maltese Falcon | publisher=Homepage | url=http://www.symaltesefalcon.com/ }} </ref> The yacht was listed for sale in 2006 on Yachtworld.com, the asking price being [[Euro|€]]99,000,000 with engine hours listed at 1,890 hours.<ref>[http://www.yachtworld.com/core/listing/boatFullDetails.jsp?boat_id=1877811&ybw=&units=Feet&currency=USD&access=Public&listing_id=22866&url= 2006 Perini Navi Boat For Sale], Details, yachtworld.com</ref> Perkins sold the yacht for £60 million in July 2009.<ref name="STimes1">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6736074.ece|title=£60m floats Tom Perkins' 289ft boat|work=Sunday Times|date=2009-08-02|accessdate=2009-08-02 | location=London | first=Emma | last=Smith}}</ref> In 2011 Perkins acquired a Japanese fisheries training vessel, and had it converted into an "adventure" yacht named ''Dr. No'' which is used to carry a "Deep Flight" submarine, manufactured by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, of [[Richmond, California|Richmond]] California. The boat has a website which carries a link to a video documenting encounters with [[Humpback whales]] at depth in [[Tonga]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spectrepacific.com/ |title=Deep into the Heart of the Pacific... : Poster |publisher=Spectrepacific.com |accessdate=2014-07-15}}</ref> ==Books== *''Classic Supercharged Sports Cars'' (ISBN 0-9612268-0-3) Published in 1984, this is Perkins's account of pre-[[World War II]] classic car collection. *''Sex and the Single Zillionaire'', (ISBN 0-06-085167-8) published In January 2006, this is Perkins first romance novel, which he dedicated to Steel. The plot of the book is based on a [[reality TV]] idea which was pitched to Perkins, where he would date a series of women and choose one to marry. He claims that "no 'ghost' did the writing." Proceeds from the book will be donated to Harvard University.<ref name="wsjbook" /> *''Valley Boy: The Education of Tom Perkins.'' (ISBN 1-59-240313-1) published in November 2007, this is Perkins memoir. Perkins discussed the book, his time at HP, and his sailboat with [[Lesley Stahl]] on ''[[60 Minutes]]'' in September 2007.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Life of Tom Perkins | date=October 6, 2009 | publisher=cbsnews.com | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/01/60minutes/main3442193.shtml }}</ref> *''Mine's Bigger: The Extraordinary Tale of the World's Greatest Sailboat and the Silicon Valley Tycoon Who Built It''. An account of Perkins' building of ''The Maltese Falcon'' – by ''[[Newsweek]]'''s [[David A. Kaplan]] – was published in 2007.<ref>ISBN 978-0-06-137402-9</ref> The book in 2008 won the [[Gerald Loeb Award]] for best business book of the year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x3287.xml |title=Gerald Loeb Awards &#124; UCLA Anderson School of Management |publisher=Anderson.ucla.edu |date=2011-02-07 |accessdate=2011-03-16}}</ref> ==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} {{Commons category|Tom Perkins}} {{private equity investors}} {{News Corporation|collapsed}} {{Authority control}} {{Persondata | NAME = Perkins, Tom | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Perkins, Thomas Jame | SHORT DESCRIPTION = American businessperson | DATE OF BIRTH = January 7, 1932 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins, Tom}} [[Category:1932 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American computer businesspeople]] [[Category:American media executives]] [[Category:Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area]] [[Category:Harvard Business School alumni]] [[Category:Hewlett-Packard people]] [[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni]] [[Category:News Corporation people]] [[Category:Private equity and venture capital investors]] [[Category:American businesspeople convicted of crimes]] [[Category:Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers people]] [[Category:American financial company founders]] [[Category:American corporate directors]]'