This month many IT company executives, and many grateful technology users, are paying tribute to Eugene Kleiner, who died at his California home in November 2003 at the age of 80.

In the 1950s, as a member of the fabled ‘Fairchild Eight’, he helped lay the groundwork for the company that became the first to successfully manufacture a silicon-based transistor, Fairchild Semiconductor. Later, his ideas – and money – spawned a host of technology companies, including Sun Microsystems, Tandem Computers, Compaq Computer and Amazon.com.

“Eugene Kleiner was a great pioneer of Silicon Valley, and his contribution to finance and technology were enormous,” said the firm of venture capitalists he helped to found, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where latterly he served as a ‘partner emeritus’.