Ellen Pao trial testimony returns to that plane ride

Elizabeth Weise | USA TODAY

Corrections and clarifications: Andrew Jody Gessow testified that his memory of discussions during a flight in October 2011 was not impaired by pain medication, as suggested by Ellen Pao's lawyer. An earlier version of this story was incorrect.

SAN FRANCISCO — Wednesday's testimony in the Ellen Pao case returned to that now infamous private plane ride, where Pao's colleagues and associates may have engaged in sexual talk about women.

Pao is suing her former employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, for $16 million, claiming gender bias and retaliation. Her attorney has used the plane ride as an example of an environment at the firm that made it harder for women to achieve than men.

Andrew Jody Gessow, a private equity investor, was a passenger on an October 2011 private plane trip to New York described in Pao's complaint.

On board were several Kleiner partners, including Pao, as well as Dan Rosensweig, CEO of the textbook and learning site Chegg that the firm had invested in.

Pao has described what she felt was an inappropriate and uncomfortable 20-minute discussion that included the "hotness" of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, "hot" porn stars, older men dating younger women and New York clubs with "hot" staff.

However, under direct questioning by Kleiner lawyer Jessica Perry, Gessow said that there had been no discussion of anything explicitly sexual or inappropriate.

Although there had been discussion of the Playboy company, it was about how it had "traded down to the value of its real estate. I followed it for several years and one of the companies I worked with bought the enterprise," he said.

Gessow was then cross-examined by Therese Lawless, Pao's lawyer.

During that session, she asked about a skiing accident he'd been in in February 2011 that left him with "permanent nerve pain" and on pain medication.

Lawless cited a partial disability claim Gessow had filed in which he said the pain and the medications he was taking impacted his memory, patience and decision-making abilities.

She then asked him a series of questions about the flight and the discussions.

Some of them Gessow answered by saying he didn't recall. Several of them, though, including many related to the alleged sexual portion of the conversation, he was adamant had not occurred.

Lawless also asked about Rosensweig, who had been described as "boisterous" in testimony by Kleiner partner Ted Schlein last week.

"I don't know what you mean by boisterous," he said. "He's a professional."

VALENTINE'S DAY

Now in its third week, testimony in the case has shifted to witnesses being called by the defense. On Tuesday afternoon, that included Randy Komisar, a senior partner at Kleiner who told stories about a gift and a dinner invitation that differed from those told by Pao.

The jury has already heard several versions of two specific interactions between Pao and Komisar that figure in her legal filing.

In Pao's telling, Komisar gave her a Valentine's Day present of a book containing romantic poetry and drawings of nude women. Soon thereafter, he asked her to dinner, making it clear his wife was away from home at the time.

Both instances made her uncomfortable, although she has acknowledged on the stand that she didn't say so at the time and wasn't sure of Komisar's intent.

Komisar, who was called as a witness for Kleiner, told a different tale Tuesday afternoon.

He is a Buddhist who has written a book about Buddhism and being an entrepreneur. At work, he and Pao had had an ongoing discussion about Buddhist philosophy.

As a result, at Christmastime in 2006 she gave him two gifts, a small plastic Buddha statue and a Buddhist-inspired board game.

Komisar said he felt guilty because he hadn't gotten her anything.

"She'd given me two very nice gifts and I know that Ellen was quick to take slight and see the negative, and she could see that I wasn't reciprocating," he said

He saw an opportunity to give her a present in return at the next gift-giving occasion, which was Valentine's Day of 2007.

The day itself had no romantic connotation but instead was a "quiet celebration" celebrated by some partners at the firm.

Senior partner John Doerr, for example, generally sent out a card from his family each year. "There were usually small gifts for the clerical staff," Komisar said.

Komisar also made it a practice to give out small presents to some of his colleagues, he said.

As a gift for Pao, he hit upon a book of poetry he'd heard about on the radio.

"I had heard a snippet on National Public Radio at some point about Leonard Cohen," who had a new book out, he said.

Cohen is a well-known singer-songwriter and writer and also a Buddhist. He wrote The Book of Longing while on a five-year retreat at a Zen monastery in Southern California.

Komisar asked his wife, a Cohen fan, to buy a copy of the book so he could give it to Pao. The receipt for it from her Amazon account was entered as evidence.

On the flyleaf he wrote, "To Ellen, A taste of Dharma Bum to remind that the dharma breathes in and out and is nothing special."

Komisar had talked to Pao in the past about staying calm and breathing as a way to step outside of conflicts with her colleagues.

"Dharma Bum" refers to a famous novel by Beat writer Jack Kerouac The Dharma Bums, from 1958 about his introduction to Buddhism.

Komisar had not himself read the book or even looked through it but felt comfortable giving it to Pao because "my wife, who is my trusted adviser on these things," was comfortable with it, he said.

The 240-page book includes poems about the sexual desire of older men and the beauty of young women, as well as meditations on aging, searching for God and the difficulty of disengaging from both lust and the daily round of petty desires that keep enlightenment at bay.

Komisar said on the stand he meant nothing romantic or sexual by the gift.

NOT DINNER, BUT BANTER

As for the dinner invitation, Komisar said it actually wasn't an invitation at all, but a moment of casual banter in a large group as he and Pao waited for a meeting to start.

Kleiner Perkins holds a partner meeting every Monday morning and the partners were gathered in a conference room chatting before the meeting began.

Komisar said he asked Pao how her weekend had gone and she said she'd spent it working at the office.

Pao lives in San Francisco. The Kleiner Perkins offices are in Menlo Park, 30 miles south, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Komisar lives 7 miles to the west, in Portola Valley.

"I said it was a shame she didn't tell me because Deb (his wife) was out of town and we could have had dinner," he said.