Colin Powell Joins Venture-Capital Firm

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Silicon Valley's most famous and successful venture capitalist firm as a partner.

It is a job that brings prestige and the power to finance promising start-ups and, typically pays in the millions of dollars.

The former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is joining the firm as a part-time partner. Powell acknowledged in an interview Tuesday that he has had any number of tempting job offers since leaving the State Department in January, but that the chance to work as a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins seemed too enticing to turn down.

"I'm fascinated by what the company has done and is doing now," Powell said of Kleiner Perkins. "It's on the forefront of bringing along new technologies and bringing along entrepreneurs who are changing the world as we know it."

"I have known John Doerr and a number of the other Kleiner Perkins partners for years," Powell said.

In his new role, Powell will offer strategic advice to the firm and its portfolio of companies, according to John Doerr, a general partner at the Menlo Park, Calif., venture firm.

Powell will serve as a coach to Kleiner Perkins entrepreneurs and as an in-house expert on international affairs, a valuable skill when even fledgling technology companies are increasingly international, employing programmers around the world and sell into international markets.

"General Powell has a global perspective," said Ray Lane, a Kleiner Perkins partner and former president of the giant database company Oracle. "So we think he will be very helpful in helping us figure out what we should do overseas, and how we do it, and what we should eventually invest in."

Details about his financial arrangement with the firm were not announced, though it is common knowledge in the venture capital world that Kleiner Perkins partners divide 30 percent of profits before passing on the rest to investors.

Powell has been a sought-after lecturer, routinely making tens of thousands of dollars for a speech. He is also an investor and board member of Revolution, a health care holding company started by Stephen M. Case, a founder of America Online. He is also part of a group trying to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team.