GVL Leadership Team

GVL Board of Directors

Cliff Smith, Chief Executive Officer, GVL

Cliff Smith began serving as an adviser to GVL in 2009 and was appointed CEO in January 2011. He is the Founder and Principal of Arvo Partners, a strategic and financial consulting firm that assists private investors with identifying, recommending, implementing and managing strategic objectives that enhance value within the private companies they own. As President and CEO of Bench Dog, Smith successfully led this specialty tool company out of financial insolvency. He has over 10 years of venture capital experience working with and raising equity capital for start-up and early-stage companies. Smith previously served as President for RAIN Source Capital where he was responsible for developing, marketing, and managing a series of investment funds that provide seed and growth capital for emerging companies. Smith also worked as a consultant assisting in a management turnaround of a publicly traded specialty software company in the geosciences market. Smith holds a BA in management from Hamline University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management.

Nimay Mehta, General Partner, Lead Edge Capital

Nimay is a General Partner at Lead Edge Capital and has been responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities for the firm’s private equity funds. He has led or co-led Lead Edge’s investments into BlaBlaCar, Clearscore, Delivery Hero, Drilling Info, Ensighten, iParadigms, Marketo, Mindbody, Uber, Spotify and Viva Real. Additionally, Nimay is on the Board of Directors for Clearscore. Prior to joining Lead Edge, Nimay was on the investment team at Insight Venture Partners. Nimay graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Economics.

Paul Bell, Operating Partner, Lead Edge Capital

Paul is the former President of the Global Public and Large Enterprise division of Dell. This business unit generated half of Dell’s revenues and provided technology solutions to corporations and public sector clients around the world. Paul was an executive with Dell for over 15 years and ran multiple business units across the world. He is currently on the board of directors of two other Lead Edge Capital portfolio companies, Toast and Kapost, and he also was an advisor to Lead Edge’s previous portfolio company, Xamarin, prior to its acquisition by Microsoft in 2016. Paul received an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Organization and Management and Bachelor’s degrees in both Fine Arts and Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University.

Brian Lobdell, Associate, Lead Edge Capital

Brian joined Lead Edge Capital as an Associate in 2017. Prior to joining Lead Edge, Brian was an Analyst at JMI Equity, where he focused on sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities in the enterprise software sector. Brian graduated from Amherst College with a B.A. in Psychology.