India-born venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, known for his love for ?clean? technology, has been named alongside titans like Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Bill Clinton and Steven Speilberg, in a list of most influential names prepared by Vanity Fair magazine.
The California-based Indian origin investor, who was born in Pune and invests through Khosla Ventures, has been ranked 62 in Vanity Fair’s Annual Power Ranking for 2007. He has been featured in the list for the first time and is the only person of Indian origin there.
The list, “The New Establishment,” published in the magazine’s October issue, is topped by media baron Rupert Murdoch. He is followed by Mac computer and iPhone maker Apple’s Steve Jobs and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Khosla has been ranked ahead of investment guru George Soros (67th), fashion queen Donatella Versace (77th), The New York Times columnist and author of the famous book The World is Flat Thomas L Friedman (78th), Disney’s John Lasseter (66th) and Hollywood studio Dreamworks’ Stacey Snider (64th).
Besides capital, Khosla is also known for offering assistance and strategic advice to entrepreneurs.
Khosla acquired his engineering degree from IIT Delhi and was the founding CEO of Sun Microsystems in early 1980s. He then went on to become a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in 1986.
After forming Khosla Ventures in 2004, he discussed upon the use of ethanol as a gasoline substitute and has also invested heavily in ethanol companies. His basic aim was to cut dependence on foreign oil imports.