The BMG team of senior practitioners brings operational experience in both the corporate and the startup worlds

Heidi Mason

Heidi, a 25-year veteran of Silicon Valley, has spent the last decade building on her unique 'bilingual' experience with both large companies and independent startups, working to build mutually beneficial bridges between these two worlds. Heidi has developed initiatives to drive the practical cooperation of large companies with the venture community to the next level, co-creating the February 2003 'Building Bridges: A Summit for Key Corporate and Venture Leaders', co-sponsored by Stanford University and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA); co- designing the Corporate Venture Group, the corporate chapter of the NVCA, launched January 2004; and co-developing Strategic Venturing for Corporations, curriculum created with Stanford's School of Engineering and NVCA, which was offered in June 2004.

Heidi has been immersed in new ventures in Silicon Valley for 25 years, helping to build startup teams with vital business and marketing strategy and execution, as well as diagnosing and providing triage for those veering off course. Earlier, Heidi was co-founder and CEO of Acuity, a Silicon Valley technology marketing and communications consultancy; prior to that, she co-led Regis McKenna's entry into technology marketing services. She also co-founded the successful publishing arm of Digital Equipment Corporation, where her collaboration began with computer pioneer Gordon Bell.

Ms. Mason is co-author with Tim Rohner of The Venture Imperative: A New Model for Corporate Innovation (May 2002, Harvard Business School Press).

She holds a B. A., Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Liz Arrington

Currently based in Silicon Valley, Liz previously spent 8 years in Asia where she headed the strategy and professional services arm of e-business consultancy Media Arts, and co-founded the Asia-Pacific practice of international routes-to-market management consultancy VIA International. Prior to her time in Singapore, Liz served as Business Development Manager and corporate venture investor in Mitsubishi International Corporation's Silicon Valley operation.

Her educational credentials include an MBA in marketing and finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an honors undergraduate degree from Harvard College.

Christine Barratt is a Partner with the Bell Mason Group based in London. Like all BMG team Partners, Christine combines best practices from two worlds: hands on venture development expertise with senior-level corporate business development and marketing & sales experience. She has a unique specialization in channel design and development and has worked extensively both with global and fast-growth technology companies to innovate and refine new channel tools and techniques.

Christine is the founder of Channel Metrics, which serves large corporate clients such as BP. Christine's background includes 8 years in channels/'routes to market 'consulting as well as senior marketing positions (in both mature and emerging markets) with Compaq. She also built and guided a successful start-up distribution venture through several significant market changes and strategic shifts.

Her educational credentials include a bachelor of electrical/electronic engineering as well as an MBA from INSEAD.

Patty Burke

Patty previously held VP Marketing positions with Silicon Valley software and networking companies for more than fifteen years, leading product marketing, sales/channel and business development, corporate positioning, branding and lead generation programs.

As the first VP Marketing at start-up Ramp Networks in 1996, she was responsible for its marketing and sales strategies, creating the small business Internet router category and positioning Ramp as the leading player. A member of the executive management team, she drove positioning strategy for Ramp's 1999 Initial Public Offering (IPO); (Ramp was acquired by Nokia in 2001). Previously, Burke was VP Marketing for Madge Networks, a UK-based network equipment company, repositioning the company for its 1993 NASDAQ IPO and managing a marketing team of 50 worldwide. Prior to that Patty was VP Marketing at security software leader Symantec, managing all aspects of corporate, product, channel and promotional marketing. With Symantec, her first position was Director of Product Marketing for the Peter Norton Product Group, where she led product marketing for the PC and Mac utilities, driving 5X growth in anti-virus product revenue.

In the late '80s, Patty was Partner-in-Charge of the Networking and Telecommunications Practice at the technology marketing consulting firm, Regis McKenna Inc. (RMI). In her early career, Patty held positions in consumer and sports marketing working with organizations such as Chrysler Corporation, Miller Brewing Company and the Texas Rangers Baseball Club.

Patty is a frequent industry speaker on topics ranging from corporate positioning to product planning and launch. She is a Technology Partner with the leading early stage venture capital firm El Dorado Ventures, and consults with its portfolio companies. Patty also serves on the advisory board of several privately-held companies.

Patty holds a B.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Larry Downes

As a consultant, he has worked with leading consulting firms including McKinsey & Co., Accenture, and Computer Sciences Corporation to help large organizations integrate emerging technologies with new and existing business strategies. His recent clients include eBay, NCR, AT&T and Philips.

He is the author of two best-selling books, Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance (1998) and The Strategy Machine: Building Your Business One Idea at a Time (2002). Killer App has now sold nearly 200,000 copies and was recently named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five most important books ever written on the Internet and business. He has written for a variety of publications including the Harvard Business Review, CIO, and USA Today, and is a columnist for CIO Insight, where he writes on issues of technology and law.

His new book, "The Laws of Disruption," will be published in 2009 by Basic Books. "The Laws of Disruption" explores ten key ways in which innovation is being threatened by outdated laws and misguided regulators.

From 2003-2007, Larry was Adjunct Professor of Law and Business Strategy at the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business and the School of Information. He previously held academic appointments at Northwestern University School of Law and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is currently a nonresident Fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society.

He received his B.A. in 1980 from Northwestern University and his J.D. Magna Cum Laude from the University of Chicago in 1993. From 1993-1994, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Richard A. Posner, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Mark Klopp

Mark Klopp is a Partner with the Bell-Mason Group advising corporations on venturing.

He is a former Board Member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and served as Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee for 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, providing early access to emerging technology and growth options to Eastman. 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 in areas spanning Information Technology, Life Sciences, Advanced Materials and Clean Technology.

Mark has extensive operating experience in international business management, business development, sales and marketing 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 is also a Managing Director with Coronis Medical Ventures, an accelerator and seed fund focused on medical devices.

Mark earned a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA in Management from Roosevelt University.

Gordon Bell

Gordon Bell is co-founder and Chair of the Bell Mason Group.

Gordon Bell has been a principal researcher with Microsoft Research in San Francisco, California since 1995. At Microsoft, he is researching the capture and storage of everything an individual has experienced in his lifetime.

His previous roles have been 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+ start-up companies; and a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. He is a Diamond fellow, a TTI Vanguard advisory board member, Bell Mason Group founder, and a member of Australia's Commonwealth Science Industrial and Research Organization's Information and Computing Technology's Scientific Advisory Committee.

Since 1987 he has sponsored the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) Gordon Bell Prizes for parallelism awarded annually at Supercomputing. He has bachelor and master of science degrees from MIT (1956-57), is a University of New South Wales Fulbright Scholar (1957-58), has an honorary doctorate in Engineering from Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) (1993), and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AMACAD), ACM, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the National Academies of Engineering (NAE) and Science (NAS). Awards include: ACM-IEEE Eckert-Mauchly Award; the IEEE's Computer Pioneer and McDowell Awards; the IEEE's Von Neumann Medal; the Computer History Museum Fellow Awards; the American Electronics Association (AEA) Inventor Award for the economic contribution to New England; the IEEE 2001 Karapetoff Eminent Member's Award of Eta Kappa Nu; and the 1991 National Medal of Technology "for his continuing intellectual and industrial achievements in the field of computer design and for his leading role in establishing…computers that serve as a significant tool for engineering, science, and industry."

Specifically, he was the architect of various mini- and time-sharing computers (DEC PDP-6) and led the development of DEC's VAX and the VAX Computing Environment. Mr. Bell has been involved in, or responsible for, the design of many products at Digital Equipment and a score of other companies. Mr. Bell has authored books and papers about computers and start-up companies including Computer Structures with Dan Siewiorek and Allen Newell (1982). High Tech Ventures: The Guide for Entrepreneurial Success (1991) describes the Bell-Mason model and diagnostic for analyzing new ventures. Bell's Law describes how information processing technologies evolve to create new computer classes and industries.