Tony Blair's Next Act: Cleantech Venture Capitalist

The politician-turned-venture-capitalist act seems to be increasingly the rage. Joining former Vice President Al Gore and former New York mayor George Pataki in the venture world, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced yesterday that he would be joining Khosla Ventures as an advisor on renewable technology.

The former PM was once at the helm of a mid 1990s liberal resurgence that was meant to challenge the sustained voice of the conservative Thatcherites who had controlled the British public debate since the 1980s. Alas, by the time he left office in 2007, Blair's impact and legacy had been mightily blunted by his decision to support George W. Bush's adventure in Iraq.

Since leaving office, Blair has kept himself busy with little tasks like being the Middle East Peace Envoy for the Quartet, as well as the normal post-president/prime minister stuff like advising megacorporations and giving speeches for a fat dime.

But climate change seems to be at the heart of Blair's new focus. Since leaving government, he has been at the helm of the Breaking the Climate Deadlock initiative to try to build consensus among world leaders about how to reverse the tide on the climate. But the investment in Silicon Valley seems to be driven by a sense that the real opportunity for change is going to come not by curbing consumption, but by creating new technologies that are accessible to everyone, including (even especially) increasingly energy hungry developing countries like India and China.

Khosla Ventures seems to share this sort of pragmatism. The firm was founded by Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla after his tenure at legendary venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and is currently investing just over a billion dollars in cleantech and information technology.

Blair will be paid, but won't become an operational partner, and won't be investing his own money. The general sense seems to be that Blair will have two main contributions. First, he brings to the table the sort of rolodex you only get by being President or Prime Minister. This could be useful for facilitating introductions and negotiating deals, such as manufacturing locations.

More than even that, however, Blair brings his knowledge of policy and ability to advise the Valley firm on how the current political climate might impact portfolio companies. The relationship between government and the private sector when it comes to clean energy is, by necessity, more close even if it isn't always cozy. In this case the successful development of new technologies is simply going to require more coordination and cooperation, right from the outset. From a purely pragmatic standpoint, having Blair involved more formally will most likely give Khosla a lot more credibility when it tries to pull in government dollars.

Right now, when it comes to clean energy, I'm up for most things that could accelerate the pace of success. Whether this relationship really accomplishes that, I'm not, but no matter what, it will be interesting to see how -- for good or ill -- the closer relationship between government and business can move the dial on one of our most pressing issues.

Photo credit: World Economic Forum