Partners & Fellows
The BMG team of senior practitioners brings operational experience in both the corporate and the startup worlds
Heidi Mason
Co-Founder and Chair
Heidi Mason has spent more than twenty-five years in Silicon Valley, immersed in its ecosystem and venture-backed start-up community, as an entrepreneur focusing on start-up development and corporate venturing (CV) consulting.
In 1990, she cofounded the Bell Mason Group, a specialty management consultancy dedicated to improving corporate venture program development and impact. Mason developed the corporate venturing framework and assessment methodology that serves as a foundation for much of the Bell Mason Group work.
BMG clients have spanned the globe, across industry sectors, including Citigroup, Merck, Chevron, Philips, and Coca Cola. She has held numerous venture board seats over the years, along with strategic advisory board roles with large, global companies. Under her leadership, BMG has partnered with a variety of leading CV specialty service providers to accelerate quality CV program and platform development (in legal, compensation, innovation strategy, and accounting/tax). She has also been instrumental in guiding industry research and standards development that support CV practice professionalization and quality repeatability.
She became a Strategic Advisory Board member for Global Corporate Venturing shortly after its founding in 2010 and is a founding partner of the Global Corporate Venturing Institute. She is also a multi-published author including co-authoring The Venture Imperative: A New Model of Corporate Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, and is a co-author of Corporate Venturing: A Survival Guide released January 2019
Mason holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with honors.
Liz Arrington
Managing Partner
Liz Arrington has spent decades advising global corporations on the development of resilient and impactful corporate venturing and innovation programs. She is the co-founder and Managing Director of the Global Corporate Venturing Institute which is focused on CV industry advancement, staying power and innovation impact. She is the architect of the Keystone CVC benchmarking platform. Ms. Arrington collaborates with leading industry organizations such as Health Evolution Summit and J Thelander to develop specialist CV content. She has worked extensively with venture-capital-backed start-ups around the globe to address nascent market development opportunities.
Ms. Arrington began her corporate venturing career with Mitsubishi International Corporation, in Silicon Valley, where she and Mason were first introduced. She subsequently spent eight years in Asia, where she cofounded the Asia-Pacific practice of VIA international, a global “routes to market” consultancy, and pioneered the firm’s venturing advisory practice. Shortly thereafter, she joined forces with BMG and spearheaded its successful introduction into ASEAN, North Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Arrington relocated to Silicon Valley in 2001.
Ms. Arrington is a director of Tack Gives Back, a nonprofit supporting equine- and other animal-facilitated therapy organizations. She holds an MBA in marketing and finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an honors undergraduate degree from Harvard College.
Ms. Arrington is a multi-published author, most recently the co-author of Corporate Venturing: A Survival Guide released January 2019. She holds an MBA in marketing and finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and an honors undergraduate degree from Harvard College.
Gordon Bell
Co-founder, Chair of Bell Mason Group (Emeritus)
From 1995 - 2024, Mr. Bell was a principal researcher with Microsoft Research in San Francisco, California. At Microsoft, he researched the capture and storage of everything an individual had experienced in his lifetime.
His previous roles included vice president of research and development at Digital Equipment Corp. (1960-1983); professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University (1966-72); founding assistant director of the National Science Foundation's Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) Directorate (1986-1988); panel chair of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) for creating the Internet (1987-1988); advisor/investor in 100 plus start-up companies; and a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
Patty Burke
Bell Mason Fellow
Patty Burke is a member of the Global Corporate Venturing Institute team. She co-developed and delivered the Institute pilot course ‘Landing the Value of Corporate Venturing’, providing expertise in adult education principles and online delivery, and is an instructor and contributor to Institute curriculum strategy and course design.
Patty was previously with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) as a Venture and Innovation Catalyst, responsible for commercializing innovation products and sourcing innovations to expand CCL’s product portfolio. As an advocate for women’s leadership at CCL, she developed ‘Advancing Technical Women’ a pioneering course designed to retain and promote technical women. Launched in 2018, the course has had thousands of global women participants to date. Patty is also the author of ‘Beating the Odds: Winning Strategies for Women in STEM’ released in 2020, that tells the real-life success stories of technical women and explores critical turning points that can make or break women’s careers.
Previously, Patty was founder and managing partner of Accelevate, an innovation consulting firm providing business model validation and innovation training for corporate innovation teams, based on Lean Startup and Business Model Canvas principles. Prior to co-founding Accelevate, Ms. Burke was a Bell Mason Group partner bringing a specialist venture perspective to BMG’s corporate venturing and innovation services for global 1000 companies. Before that she led Burke Venture Consulting, working with venture capital firms and their portfolio companies on business planning, product, and market strategies.
Patty also held executive positions with Silicon Valley software and networking companies for more than fifteen years. She was VP Marketing at Ramp Networks and at Madge Networks, guiding both companies through significant growth phases and IPOs. Prior to that she was VP Marketing at security software leader Symantec and Director of Product Marketing for the Peter Norton Product Group.
Patty was previously an instructor for CalTech Executive Education and is a mentor and advisor to entrepreneurial programs at California College of the Arts/Design MBA and San Jose State University Lucas College and Graduate School of Business. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
Larry Downes
Bell Mason Fellow
Larry Downes is an Internet industry analyst and best-selling author on developing business strategies in an age of accelerating technological disruption.
He is the co-author, with Paul F. Nunes, of Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation (Portfolio 2014), now a bestseller. Based on extensive research, the book describes a new kind of disruptive innovation and teaches executives across industries how to adjust their strategies to survive it.
His previous book, The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces that Govern Business and Life in the Digital Age explored the accident-prone intersection of law and innovation.
Downes is the author of the New York Times and Business Week best-seller, Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance, which was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the five most important books ever published on business and technology.
He writes regularly for Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post and CNET, and is frequently quoted in media stories in both mainstream and trade outlets.
He is currently Project Director at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy and a Research Fellow with the Accenture Institute for High Performance.
He has previously held faculty appointments at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Northwestern University School of Law, and the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he was Associate Dean of the School of Information.
Mark Klopp
Bell Mason Fellow
As a BMG fellow, Mr. Klopp contributes his extensive hands-on corporate venturing expertise, particularly in venture capital and medical technology. Mark is also an independent consultant, board member, advisor and investor. He is a Managing Director with Coronis Medical Ventures, an accelerator for medical devices. He assists Xinova in the area of licensing intellectual property for development and commercialization and is a business advisor for Larta and Tech Futures Group. Mark serves as a board member and business advisor for several private ventures and Christian ministries.
Mark is a former Board Member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and served as Chairman and founding member of the Corporate Venture Group. Formerly Managing Director of Eastman Ventures, Eastman Chemical Company's corporate venture capital arm, Mark started up and led the company's efforts to invest in and partner with private companies. He and his team forged relationships and co-investments with premier venture capitalists and corporations. Eastman invested with a top-quartile IRR track record in 25 ventures and 5 venture funds spanning Information Technology, Life Sciences, Advanced Materials and Clean Technology.
Mark developed extensive operating experience in international business management, sales and marketing while with Eastman. Previous assignments included: Assistant to the CEO and Chairman; Regional Business Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa and several Marketing and Sales executive positions.
Mark earned a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA in Management from Roosevelt University.
Paul McManus
Bell Mason Fellow
Paul McManus is an Executive-in-Residence and Lecturer in the Department of Strategy and Innovation in the School of Management at Boston University. An award-winning member of the faculty, Mr. McManus teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as at the executive level. For executive programs and his external consulting, he specializes in innovation processes that: uncover emergent high-growth opportunities, systematize the venturing process, and create novel platforms for the deployment of new products, services, and businesses. His current interests relate to the commercialization of deep science and formation public/private partnerships for funding R&D/new venture development. Additionally, McManus holds an administrative appointment to lead the development of the newly created initiative focused on “The Next Economy.”
Prior to joining the faculty at Boston University full-time in 2006, McManus spent six years sourcing deals, conducting due diligence and building startup teams with Boston Millennia Partners, a $740M early-stage venture capital fund based in Boston.
Previously, Mr. McManus spent eight years as a venture development consultant to technology startups, venture investors and multinational corporations across North America, Western/Central/Eastern Europe, Eurasia and MENA. During the first fifteen years of his career, he served as an engineer, product manager and new venture development executive with Digital Equipment Corporation.
Mr. McManus received his MBA from Boston University and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Lesley Pickford
Bell Mason Fellow
Lesley Pickford is a Bell Mason Fellow who brings over 20 years of domain experience in the building of biopharmaceutical startups and businesses, both venture capital and big Pharma backed.
She has held responsibilities in translational through Phase 3 clinical stage R&D, primarily in the areas of neurology, but also oncology and autoimmune disease indications. She also has experience with global Pharma partnered programs and has provided extensive CI, business development and alliance support in this context.
Her accomplishments include authoring nonclinical sections of over 25 INDs/CTAs and several successful NDAs/MAAs for currently approved drugs in neurology, pain and dermatology. Inventor on 19 US, plus worldwide, patent applications, with over 40 publications, abstracts, and presentations.
Lesley, currently a Senior Partner and Principal Analyst in the BioPharmaceutical practice at Oceana Associates, has held positions of increasing functional operational and scientific R&D leadership, through executive management levels, up to SVP Drug Development.
Lesley's education included a BSc (first class honors); a PhD in Medical Biochemistry; Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Departments of Pathology and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences; and an Executive MBA at Santa Clara University.
Lee Sessions
Bell Mason Fellow
Lee Sessions brings a successful track record as a Corporate Venturing & Innovation (CV&I) practitioner in a premier global CVC program. He offers a unique perspective on the power of both structured portfolio development and ecosystem collaboration, as well as an understanding of how to craft impactful programs. He is also the first Executive-in-Residence for Global Corporate Venturing (GCV), focused on initiatives to advance CV&I industry growth and success.
Lee spent more than a decade as a Managing Director with industry leader Intel Capital where he most recently spearheaded a strategic initiative to expand and strengthen the corporate venture capital ecosystem for collaboration and co-investment. He is a recognized relationship builder who can develop, leverage, and cultivate a vast network of industry thought leaders, key stakeholders, technology partners, and executives in the technology and venture capital space. Since 2016 he has served on the Global Corporate Venturing Leadership Society Advisory Board.
For more than a decade, Lee led Intel Capital’s portfolio development organization focused on differentiating a well-known global venture capital brand and establishing strategic opportunities for ~ 400 portfolio companies across all investment stages. His teams pioneered new approaches to optimize business development and he was responsible for ramping the size and impact of the Intel Capital Global Summit as well as improving the value proposition of Intel Capital Technology days (up to 70/year) internally and externally.
Previously Lee held global Human Resources leadership roles in Intel and Pepsi Cola. His HR background includes employee and labor relations, organization and leadership development, training, coaching, compensation and benefits. He is a graduate of Colorado College.
Sessions is an intrepid adventurer with a lifelong passion for paddling, research, and discovery, including traveling the length of the Mississippi River and leading dozens of expeditions in the Canadian Arctic.