Josh Lerner
managing partner
Josh Lerner graduated from Yale College with a special divisional major. He worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard’s Economics Department.
His research on venture capital and private equity is collected in three books, The Venture Capital Cycle, The Money of Invention, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams. He also examines policies on innovation and how they impact firm strategies. He co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program and serves as co-editor of their publication. He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute, a nonprofit devoted to encouraging access to data and research, and has been a frequent leader of and participant in the World Economic Forum projects and events.
Managing Partner and Co-Founder
Bella Private Markets
Jacob H. Schiff Professor of investment banking
Harvard Business School
In the 1993-1994 academic year, Dr. Lerner introduced an elective course for second-year MBAs. Over the past two decades, “Venture Capital and Private Equity” has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at Harvard Business School. (The course materials are collected in Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook, now in its fifth edition, and the textbook Venture Capital, Private Equity, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship.) He also established and teaches doctoral courses on entrepreneurship, teaches in the Owners-Presidents-Managers Program, and leads executive courses on private equity. He is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor in Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Management unit.
Among other recognitions, he is the winner of the Swedish government’s Global Entrepreneurship Research Award and Cheng Siwei Award for Venture Capital Research.
In the rapidly evolving and highly competitive private marketplace, fund managers and investors alike turn to Bella for solutions to their most complicated or sensitive problems. Our clientele includes top-tier firms across six continents and every stage of investment. Bella’s high-touch approach allows us to gain a deep understanding of each client’s unique needs and positioning. Through tailored analysis, strategic insights, and tactical recommendations we help firms navigate the cyclical private markets landscape.
our mission
Bella Private Markets is guided by the expert leadership of its two founding partners, Dr. Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon. After working together at Harvard Business School for a decade and writing Venture Capital, Private Equity, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship, the two partnered in 2010 to found Bella and respond to the needs of private capital industry. With more than 45 years of combined experience, Josh and Ann bring unparalleled expertise to our clients.
Co-founders
