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FinanceKleiner Perkins

Man at center of Ellen Pao case still working in VC

By
Dan Primack
Dan Primack
By
Dan Primack
Dan Primack
March 27, 2015, 1:50 PM ET

Over the past several weeks, a large number of people have testified in Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. And almost all of them, at some point, have talked about Ajit Nazre — the man who arguably is as central to the trial as Pao herself. But Nazre himself was never in the courtroom, nor ever on any witness list.

For those who haven’t been following closely, Nazre is a former Kleiner Perkins partner with whom Pao at one point had a consensual sexual relationship. She claims he lied to her about being separated from his wife and that he later retaliated against her professionally. A fellow female partner, Trae Vassallo, testified that Nazre showed up outside her hotel room during a business trip, dressed in a bathrobe and holding a glass of wine. He was eventually fired from the firm in 2012 (it would have happened earlier but, ironically, Pao convinced firm management to give him a second chance).

Shortly after Pao filed her gender discrimination complaint in 2012, Nazre was tough to find. Some folks in the Valley suggested that he had moved back to India, while another told me that he had become “a ghost.”

Since then, however, it appears that Nazre has found some work in the tech and VC space. Back in 2012 he joined Reliance Industries Ltd., a listed Indian natural resources and petrochemicals company, as an executive vice president and chief scientific officer. He also serves as a U.S. venture advisor to Wellington Partners, a venture capital firm that has offices in London and Munich.

It is unclear if Nazre is living in the U.S. or in India, but his Facebook account includes a recent message from a friend lamenting that they “could not connect” in Silicon Valley.

Fortune has reached out to both Reliance Industries and Wellington Partners, to ask for reaction to what has come out during the Pao trial. I also was curious if either knew why he had been fired from Kleiner Perkins.

Neither has responded. A Wellington receptionist sounded agitated by my questions, suggesting at the time that it was unreasonable for me to expect a response in just one day. That was Tuesday.

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About the Author
By Dan Primack
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