Ellen Pao facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ellen Pao
|
|
|---|---|
Pao in 2015
|
|
| Born | 1970 (age 54–55) New Jersey, U.S.
|
| Alma mater | Princeton University (BA) Harvard University (JD, MBA) |
| Occupation |
|
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Children | 1 (with Fletcher) |
| Signature | |
 |
|
| Ellen Pao | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 鮑康如 | ||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Bào Kāngrú | ||||||
|
|||||||
Ellen Kangru Pao (Chinese: 鮑康如; born in 1970) is an American lawyer and businesswoman. She was the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the social media website Reddit from 2014 to 2015. Since 2016, she has been a co-founder and CEO of Project Include. This is a non-profit group that helps companies become more fair and welcoming to everyone.
Pao first became well-known in 2012. She filed a lawsuit against her employer, a company called Kleiner Perkins. She said they treated her unfairly because she was a woman. She has continued to speak out about how companies in Silicon Valley (a big tech area) hire and promote people.
In 2014, she became the temporary CEO of Reddit. ..... Other social media sites soon followed this rule. In 2015, some of her decisions at Reddit caused a lot of discussion. For example, she banned certain Reddit groups that were known for harassment. This led to many users being upset, and she eventually left her job. The strong reactions she faced made people talk about how women in technology are treated. It also highlighted the importance of companies being open with their users and volunteers.
Contents
Early life and education
Ellen Pao was born in 1970 in New Jersey, USA. Her parents were immigrants from Taiwan. She was the middle child of three daughters.
Her father, Young-Ping Pao, was a professor at New York University. Her mother, Tsyh-Wen Pao, was an engineer. Ellen learned to code from her mother when she was ten years old. The Pao family raised their children in Maplewood, New Jersey.
Ellen Pao went to Princeton University. She graduated in 1991 with a degree in public and international affairs. She then studied law at Harvard Law School. She earned her law degree in 1994. After working for two years, she returned to Harvard Business School. She received her MBA degree in 1998.
Career Journey
From 1994 to 1996, Ellen Pao worked as a lawyer at a company called Cravath, Swaine & Moore. In 1998, she worked at WebTV. She also worked at several other companies in Silicon Valley. From 2001 to 2005, she was a Senior Director at BEA Systems.
In 2005, Pao joined Kleiner Perkins. This was a well-known company that invests in new businesses. She worked as a special assistant to a senior partner named John Doerr. This job needed her to use her skills in engineering, law, and business. In 2007, she became a junior investing partner. While at Kleiner Perkins, Pao helped the company grow in China.
After some years, Pao was not chosen for a senior partner position. She believed this was unfair and that men with similar backgrounds were promoted. On May 10, 2012, Pao filed a lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins. She claimed she was treated unfairly because of her gender. She continued to work there until October 2012. The company said she was let go because of her work performance. On March 27, 2015, a jury decided the case in favor of Kleiner Perkins.
Leading Reddit
In 2013, Pao joined Reddit. She was in charge of finding new business opportunities and partnerships. One of her first actions helped strengthen Reddit's connection with Imgur, a popular image hosting site. She wanted to make it easier for people to join and use Reddit.
Pao became the temporary CEO of Reddit in November 2014. She made a change to how new employees were offered jobs. She decided to give two final offers: one with more cash and one with more company ownership. She did this because studies showed women were often treated unfairly when trying to negotiate their pay.
..... This meant that private images shared without permission were no longer allowed on Reddit. Other social media sites soon followed Reddit's lead.
In June and July 2015, Pao faced a lot of criticism from Reddit users. This happened after five Reddit communities (called subreddits) were banned for harassment. Also, Reddit's director of talent was fired. Many users signed an online petition asking for her to be removed. On July 10, it was announced that Pao had resigned from Reddit.
After Reddit: Project Include
After leaving Reddit, Pao co-founded a non-profit organization called Project Include. She started it with other women in the technology industry. This group helps new companies (with 25 to 1,000 employees) with advice on how to create a fair and diverse workplace. They share their progress reports publicly.
In November 2015, Pao shared that she was writing a book about her experiences. The book, titled Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, was published later. It was even nominated for a business book award in 2017.
In 2017, she became a partner at Kapor Capital. She also became the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Kapor Center for Social Impact. She left these roles in 2018 to focus on being the CEO of Project Include.
Gender Discrimination Lawsuit
On May 10, 2012, Ellen Pao filed a lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins. The trial began in February 2015. It was widely covered by news media and sparked many discussions about fairness in the workplace. People followed the trial closely online, sharing their thoughts on social media. After 24 days, the jury decided in favor of Kleiner Perkins.
While Pao's trial was happening, other women also filed similar lawsuits against big tech companies like Twitter and Facebook. Many lawyers and experts believed Pao's case encouraged these women to speak up. Some even called this trend the Pao effect. This led to more conversations about gender equality in the tech world.
After the trial, Kleiner Perkins asked Pao to pay for some of their legal costs. They offered to drop this request if she agreed not to appeal the verdict. Pao decided to appeal the decision. A judge later ruled that Pao would only need to pay a smaller amount, around $275,966. Pao argued that making her pay could discourage others from filing discrimination cases in the future.
In September 2015, Pao wrote an article for Re/code. She encouraged companies to be more open about unfair treatment claims from their employees. She also pointed out that small, subtle actions can make a big difference in how women are seen at work. Pao later formally dropped her appeal.
Leaving Reddit
On June 10, 2015, Reddit announced that five subreddits were banned. These groups were removed because they encouraged harassment outside of Reddit. One of these groups, r/FatPeopleHate, had over 150,000 members. Many Reddit users were unhappy with this decision. They created online petitions asking for Pao to resign. Some users also posted hateful comments and images about Pao on Reddit and other websites.
The opposition grew on July 2. Many parts of Reddit were made private by moderators to protest the firing of Victoria Taylor. She was Reddit's director of talent and helped organize popular "Ask Me Anything" interviews. Moderators were frustrated because they felt Reddit's management was not communicating well. They only found out about Taylor's firing indirectly.
Many people believed Pao was responsible for Taylor's dismissal. This led to even more harassment against Pao. The petition asking for her removal reached over 200,000 signatures. On July 3, Pao apologized through Reddit and Time magazine. However, her Reddit apology post was quickly downvoted and became hard to see. In a longer post on July 6, she apologized for poor communication and not keeping promises. Pao resigned on July 10. Steve Huffman, a co-founder of Reddit, took over as CEO.
On July 12, former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong shared some information. He explained that Victoria Taylor was actually fired by Alexis Ohanian, another Reddit co-founder, not Pao. Pao tweeted her thanks for this information. Wong also criticized the strong negative reaction against Pao. He warned that Reddit's co-founders might bring in even stricter rules. Huffman later did create new rules to reduce the visibility of some hateful communities and ban others.
On July 13, Reddit's chief engineer, Bethanye Blount, left the company. She said Pao did not get enough support from the company's board. Blount mentioned the "glass cliff" idea. This is when women are given leadership jobs that are often unstable or difficult. On July 16, Pao wrote about the challenge of fighting harassment while still allowing "edgy content." She described the backlash she faced as "one of the largest trolling attacks in history."
Discussions About Reddit's Leadership
In June 2020, Ellen Pao posted on Twitter. She said that Reddit's current leadership needed to be called out.
Her tweet criticized Steve Huffman, Reddit's CEO at the time. Pao said he was responsible for allowing racism and hatred on the platform. She accused Reddit of making money from "white supremacy."
Huffman had written an open letter on Reddit in response to the George Floyd protests. In it, he said that Reddit "does not tolerate hate, racism, and violence." However, Pao found his words to be hypocritical.
Several popular Reddit groups, like r/NBA and r/NFL, agreed with Pao. They shut down their pages for 24 hours to protest Huffman's letter. They called it "hypocritical" and asked Reddit's leaders to take stronger action against racism on the platform.
Views on Fairness
In 2021, during the fraud trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, Pao wrote an article for the New York Times. She said that while Holmes should be held responsible for her actions, it's also true that male CEOs are not always held to the same standard for their mistakes. Pao believed this showed a problem with sexism.
She gave examples of other companies and their male leaders. She mentioned Facebook's role in spreading misinformation and hate under Mark Zuckerberg. She also brought up Juul's misleading promotion of nicotine products and various problems at Uber under Travis Kalanick. Pao felt that these male leaders were not always held accountable in the same way.
Personal Life
Ellen Pao was married to Roger Kuo, but they later divorced. She then married Buddy Fletcher in December 2007 in San Francisco. They met through events at the Aspen Institute. Pao and Fletcher have one daughter, who was born in July 2008. Ellen Pao is a vegetarian.
See also
In Spanish: Ellen Pao para niños
- Women in venture capital
