Alum Doerr to send off Class of

Alum Doerr to send off Class of ’07

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

One of Rice’s most famous alumni — venture capitalist John Doerr — will deliver the commencement address to the Class of 2007 in May.

Doerr is a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), the firm that provided venture capital funding to Google, Amazon.com, Genentech and a host of other successful businesses.

DOERR

“I could not be more pleased with the students’ selection of John Doerr, and I am grateful that despite his hectic schedule he accepted the invitation to be our speaker,” said Rice President David Leebron. “John is a legendary figure in his field of venture capital and an important voice on and contributor to solutions of issues of national and international importance. He is a great example of all that our graduates can accomplish.”

Michael Orchard, professor in electrical and computer engineering, chaired the selection committee and noted that the students came up with a short list of world leaders in business, politics, literature and entertainment who were their top choices. “The committee was attracted by John Doerr’s record of success as a venture capitalist and an entrepreneur, his dynamic personality as evidenced in articles and video clips from the Web, and the fact that he has shared the Rice undergraduate experience,” Orchard said. Orchard presented the committee’s recommendations to President Leebron, who made the final selection and extended the invitation to Doerr.

Doerr earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering in 1973 and 1974, respectively, from Rice, where he was a resident of Lovett College. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976.

Doerr was founding CEO of Silicon Compilers, a CAD software company, and co-founder of @Home, the first broadband cable network. He joined Intel Corp. in 1974 just as the firm invented the legendary 8080 microprocessor, and he became one of Intel’s top-ranked sales executives. Doerr joined KPCB in 1980.

He serves on the boards of Google, Amazon, Intuit, Homestore and Sun Microsystems, and he has been described as “the single best venture capitalist in the world.” He received Rice’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1997.

Doerr is an advocate of public education, research and innovation, global health, science, and women as leaders. He co-chaired California Proposition 71, which authorized $3 billion for stem-cell research, and California Proposition 39, which raised $18 billion for public schools.
Doerr’s wife, Ann, is also a Rice graduate. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering in 1975 and 1976, respectively.

Recently while on campus, Doerr met with a dozen students to talk about the commencement address before formally accepting the invitation.

“John wanted to get a general consensus of what we wanted to hear at commencement and what he could bring from his experience that would have more of an impact on the graduating class,” said Patricia Mahoney, a senior who attended the gathering and also served on the selection committee for the commencement speaker. “I appreciated that he would take time out of his schedule and meet with us after coming all the way from California. I really enjoyed it,” she said.

The selection committee consisted of Orchard, chair; undergraduate student representatives Mahoney and Althea Tupper; and graduate student representatives Sheila Moore and Matthew Murphy.