FORTUNE — Megan Quinn has stepped down as head of products for mobile payment company Square, in order to join Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. She officially begins work at the venture capital firm next month, with a focus on investments in digital technology companies.
Prior to joining Square in mid-2011, Quinn had spent seven years with Google, where her roles included product development for Google Maps.
In an official statement, Quinn said: “Joining Kleiner Perkins is an incredible opportunity at such an exciting time for the firm and technology industry. I look forward to working with the talented team of investment professionals and entrepreneurs to identify and nurture the next generation of consumer Internet companies.”
Quinn joins Kleiner Perkins just as the firm is embroiled in a gender discrimination suit brought by one of its female partners. The firm has not yet filed its legal defense, but John Doerr yesterday wrote a message that extolled Kleiner Perkins’ track record hiring female investment staff.
It’s obviously unfair for Quinn to have her hiring conflated with that situation, but it’s also impossible to ignore the context — or the mitigating impact her hiring could have on Kleiner Perkins’ damaged reputation in Silicon Valley. To be clear,, I’m not saying they are directly related. Simply that the timing of Quinn’s hire is coincidentally fascinating.
Kleiner Perkins was not an original investor in Square, but did lead a $100 million Series C round for the company last summer.
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