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Woman Loses Silicon Valley Gender Bias Claim

Woman Loses Silicon Valley Gender Bias Claim

A technology chief executive has lost her claim of sex discrimination in a $16m 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.

Jurors also rejected a claim that Kleiner retaliated against Ms Pao by firing her after she sued in 2012.

The result came after more than two days of deliberation and over four weeks of testimony in the closely watched case against a firm that was an early backer of the likes of Google and Amazon.

The 45-year-old plaintiff, now interim chief executive of social news website Reddit, 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, testified during five days on the witness stand that she and other women were barred from work trips on private jets and ski resorts.

One juror asked her if it was "professional to enter into an affair with a married partner?"

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

She is married to Alphonse "Buddy" Fletcher, a Wall Street financier who is embroiled in his own discrimination lawsuit.

Mr Fletcher, who is African American, sued Manhattan's exclusive Dakota building in 2011, alleging its management was racist in questioning his ability to pay for a fourth unit in the complex.

But the Upper West Side landmark, outside of which former Beatle John Lennon was shot dead in 1980, says it refused to sell him another apartment purely over concerns about his finances.

Mr Fletcher's hedge fund is bankrupt.