Forbes – I’ve been asked that question a lot over the past seven weeks, while covering Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination lawsuit against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It almost always came from those sympathetic to Kleiner Perkins, as a sleazy insinuation that Pao’s marriage certificate invalidated her accusations.
My answer was usually the following: Yes, Pao’s husband is Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher Jr., a hedge fund manager who twice has been on the giving end of racial discrimination lawsuits. The first was against his former Wall Street employer, and he was awarded $1.26 million in damages although the specific racial discrimination charges were later denied by an arbiter. The second was against his Manhattan co-op board, which remains pending. And neither case has any direct relevance to Pao’s claims against Kleiner Perkins, except perhaps that her spouse was able to lend more than just a sympathetic ear.
