Meg Whitman joining Kleiner Perkins, report says

Meg Whitman, the former EBay Inc. chief executive who lost the California governor’s race in November, may soon take a new job at a marquee Silicon Valley investment firm.

Whitman is joining Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a strategic advisor, according to Reuters.

The venture capital firm is known for its investments in the tech, biotechnology and green energy industries, with interests in Google Inc., Twitter Inc., Flipboard Inc., Zynga Inc., Bloom Energy and dozens of other companies.

According to Reuters, Whitman’s role would be one of “mentoring and coaching executives” at companies in which the firm owns equity, as well as identifying worthwhile investments. An anonymous source told Reuters that Whitman was planning to join Kleiner Perkins in April.

Kleiner Perkins representatives were unavailable for comment.

Al Gore, a former vice president and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is a partner at the firm. So is John Doerr, who is considered a pioneer in Silicon Valley with successful investments in the lionized Netscape and Amazon.com Inc. Mary Meeker, a former Morgan Stanley analyst known for accurately foreseeing tech trends, is also a partner.

Whitman sits on the boards of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Procter & Gamble Co.

nathan.olivarezgiles@latimes.com