Susan Mason
Susan received a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Colorado and her MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Susan Mason has more than three decades of operating, management, and venture capital
experience. Prior to co-founding Iolar Ventures, she spent more than a decade as a co-founder of
Aligned Partners, and 15 years as a General Partner at ONSET Ventures. Susan has specialized in
information technology investing, specifically communications and security. As an investor and board
member, Susan has played a pivotal role in the development of companies including Securent, Alteon,
Gadzoox, SilverTail Systems and many others.
Prior to joining ONSET Ventures as a Kauffman Fellow in 1996, Susan held positions in high-technology
engineering, marketing, and business development. She led a highly successful consulting practice,
helping Fortune 1000 corporations capitalize on emerging markets and technologies. Early in her career,
she held positions in marketing and engineering design of high-performance systems and
microprocessors for Fujitsu Microelectronics, Fairchild Semiconductor, and NCR Microelectronics.
Susan received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Colorado, and
an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a regular guest speaker on entrepreneurial
topics at Stanford University, UCLA, and many local events in Silicon Valley.
Susan is a founding board member of the Center for Venture Education, which operates the Kauffman
Fellows Program. She currently serves as its Chair Emeritus. Susan is also the Chair Emeritus of the Finance
and Investment Committee for the town of Los Altos Hills, California.
Susan is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 2 and served her fellowship under mentor Rob Kuhling at ONSET Ventures in Menlo Park, CA. She has served as a mentor to Class 15 member Miriam Rivera and Class 18 member Beto Pallares. Susan is a founding board member and Chairman Emeritus of the Center for Venture Education.