Thomas Perkins
Organization leader
1932 –
Who is Thomas Perkins?
Thomas James Perkins (born 1932) is an American businessman, capitalist, and is a Partner Emeritus at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.Tom Perkins is one of Silicon Valley's pioneers, with a career spanning entrepreneurship, the management of major corporate activities and most importantly, venture capital. In 1972 he formed Americas premiere venture capital business with co-founder Eugene Kleiner. The partnership and the follow-on Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers series of partnerships have created some of the most interesting and innovative businesses in the world.Prior to Kleiner Perkins, he started a company in the mid-1960s (University Laboratories) to manufacture lasers based upon his original inventions in optics. The company was successful and merged into Spectra-Physics becoming a major part of that firms growth. Later he was the first General Manager of the Hewlett Packard Companys computer divisions and is credited with establishing the foundation for the enormous growth which that business has enjoyed.Perkins received a B.S. in EECS (course 6) from MIT in 1953. He earned an MBA from Harvard in 1957. He is now, or has been, a Director of the following public corporations: Acuson (Chairman), Applied Materials, Compaq Computer, Corning Glass Works, Genentech (Chairman), Hewlett Packard Company, Hybritech, LSI Logic, The News Corporation, Philips Electronics NV, Spectra-Physics, Symantec and Tandem Computers (Chairman).
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
- Born
- 1932
- Also known as
- Thomas James Perkins
- Thomas J Perkins
- Spouses
- Danielle Steel
(1998 - 2002) - Gerd Thune-Ellefsen
( - 1994)
- Danielle Steel
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Education
- Bachelor of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
EECS
( - 1953) - MBA, Harvard Business School
( - 1957) - Harvard University
- Bachelor of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Employment
- Partner Emeritus, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers
- General Manager, Computer Division, Hewlett-Packard
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Thomas Perkins." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/tom_perkins>.
Discuss this Thomas Perkins biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In