Vinod Khosla

Infobox_Celebrity
name = Vinod Khosla


image_size =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1955|1|28|mf=y
birth_place = Pune, India
occupation = Venture capitalist
networth = profit$1.82 Billion
spouse = Neeru
children = 4

Vinod Khosla (born January 28, 1955 in Pune, India [ [http://indest.iitd.ac.in/alumni/awards.html IIT Delhi: Distinguished Alumni Awards] ] ) is an Indian-American venture capitalist. He is an influential personality in Silicon Valley. He was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in 1986.

Early life and education

Khosla read about the founding of Intel in "Electronic Engineering Times" at the age of fourteen and this inspired him to pursue technology as a career. Khosla went on to receive degrees from the IIT Delhi, India (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering ), Carnegie Mellon University (Masters in Biomedical Engineering), and Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA).

un Microsystems

After graduating from Stanford University in 1980, Khosla along with his Stanford fellows Scott McNealy, Andy Bechtolsheim (another Carnegie Mellon graduate school alumnus), and a UC Berkeley masters degree holder named Bill Joy founded Sun Microsystems. Khosla left Sun in 1985. He then joined the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1986 as a general partner. Khosla is also one of the founders of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, and has guest-edited a special issue of Economic Times (ET), a leading business newspaper in India.

After Sun

Khosla "fell in love" with Zaplet.com, and the company has since merged and developed intoa governance, risk and compliance leader. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0UKG/is_2001_Nov_26/ai_80949876 A winner looking to back other winners] ]

While recognized for several venture "hits," Khosla also played a key role with several of the tech industry's most spectacular failures, including Asera, Zambeel, Dynabook, Excite, and others.

In 2004 Khosla formed his own firm, Khosla Ventures.

He also invested in an Indian Microfinance NGO, SKS Microfinance, which lends small loans to poor women in rural India.

Khosla was featured on Dateline NBC on Sunday, May 7, 2006. He was discussing the practicality of the use of ethanol as a gasoline substitute. He is known to have invested heavily in ethanol companies, in hopes of widespread adoption. He cites Brazil as an example of a country that has totally ended its dependence on foreign oil. [ [http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/15770599.htm Venture capitalist a techie at heart] October 15, 2006]

Khosla was a major funder of Yes on 87's campaign to pass California's Proposition 87, The Clean Energy Initiative, which failed to pass in November, 2006.

In 2006, Khosla founded ck12.org that aims to develop open source textbooks and lower the cost of education in America and the rest of the world. Khosla and his wife Neeru are also relatively substantial donors to the Wikimedia Foundation, in the amount of $500,000. [cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/23/MNIJ12ETP4.DTL&tsp=1|title=Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit|last=Cadelago|first=Chris|date=August 24, 2008|work=San Francisco Chronicle|accessdate=2008-08-24]

Personal

He lives in Woodside, California, with his wife Neeru and their four children - three daughters (Nina, Anu, and Vani) and one son (Neal).

Accomplishments

Founding companies

*Sun Microsystems Inc.
*Daisy Systems

Khosla Ventures

Khosla Ventures areas are the Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology and breakthrough scientific work in clean technology arenas, such as bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, battery and other environmentally friendly technologies. Khosla Ventures is based in Menlo Park, California [ [http://www.khoslaventures.com/about.html Khosla Ventures ] ] and it was formed in 2004.

Helping to found companies

*NexGen (now purchased by AMD)
*Excite
*@Home Network
*Juniper Networks
*Cerent
*Corvis
*LS9

Board membership

* DonorsChoose [http://www.donorschoose.org]
* MetricStream
* eASIC Inc [http://www.easic.com]
* Spatial Photonics Inc
* Xsigo Systems
* moka5
* Ausra
* Kovio

Other

*1999 World Technology Award Finalist
* Honorary Chair, DonorsChoose San Francisco Bay Area Advisory Board

Notes

ee also

* Range Fuels
* Virgin Green Fund

External links

* [http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=20 Fear, Greed and Sky Diving] , Vinod speaks at Stanford
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-570288889128950913&q=cellulosic+ethanol+enzyme&hl=en Vinod speaks to Google employees about ethanol on March 29, 2006]
* [http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/127/a-devilish-green-angel.html?page=0%2C0 Making cement while sequestering carbon] , Issue 127, July 2008; Retrieved 2008-07-20.
* [http://www.khoslaventures.com/resources.html Vinod's presentations, papers]
* [http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/8/8/2049/64576 Vinod's ethanol views debated]
* [http://www.khoslaventures.com/press.html Press]
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vinod-khosla/ Vinod's Blog]
* [http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1120598654 Computer History Museum, 11-Jan-2006: Sun Founders Panel]
* [http://www.sun.com/2006-0113/feature/index.html Sun Feature Story: The Fab Four Reunites] (webcast of the event)
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-570288889128950913&q=engEDU Biofuel-ethanol] talk by Khosla. Google TechTalks March 29, 2006
* [http://www.khoslaventures.com/ Khosla Ventures] :
** [http://www.socaltech.com/khosla_ventures_funds_gevo/s-0007942.html Khosla Ventures Funds Gevo] .
** [http://www.socaltech.com/gevo_licenses_ucla_technology/s-0012927.html Gevo Licenses UCLA Technology] .
** [http://blogs.business2.com/greenwombat/2008/01/vinod-khosla-pl.html Vinod Khosla plugs into the electric car; EcoMotors] .
** [http://www.khoslaventures.com/presentations/solarflare_final.ppt Solarflare presentation] (ppt).
* [http://www.charlierose.com/guests/vinod-khosla Vinod Khosla] "Charlie Rose", 22 Sept. 2006
* [http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10766460 From geeks to greens]

s-bef|before = first s-ttl|title = CEO of Sun Microsystems
years = 1982 - 1984 s-aft|after = Scott McNealy

s-bef|before = first s-ttl|title = Chairman of Sun Microsystems
years = 1982 - 1984 s-aft|after = Scott McNealy