Sven Harmsen, director of external venturing, Saint-Gobain NOVA, Malvern, PA

MALVERN, PA—Since 2006, building products company Saint-Gobain has encouraged innovation through an external ventures incubator called Saint-Gobain NOVA. Now, the business accelerator has named Sven Harmsen, a former venture investments strategist for German pharmaceutical company Merck, as director of external venturing to drive Saint-Gobain NOVA's broader growth strategy, as well as the company's strategy around engagement and investment in startups and their relationships with Saint-Gobain businesses.

With more than 15 years of experience in business development and investment in venture capital backed start-ups and large corporations, Harmsen's expertise will help Saint-Gobain NOVA enhance its partnership activities with like-minded startups and grow the company's investment portfolio. He will also be actively involved in ensuring the success of the InNOVAte 2019 Challenge, an accelerator program developed in partnership with CertainTeed, Saint-Gobain's leading building and construction brand, and Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech incubator in the U.S., with the goal of developing innovative technologies to disrupt the built environment value chain.

“Sven's experience leading global investment teams and developing strategic plans for portfolio companies will be valuable to our team as we work to expand our portfolio,” says Minas Apelian, vice president of R&D, quality and external venturing at Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed. “The diversity of Sven's background as well as his deep knowledge of business development and strategic investment will help to enhance our overarching strategy to ensure we create an optimized, efficient plan for our path forward.”

Before joining Saint-Gobain NOVA, Harmsen served as investment director at M Ventures, the global corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. From M Ventures' office in Cambridge, MA, he established and led a global investment team focusing on strategic investments in the field of performance materials and built an international portfolio of strategic investments. He also previously worked for BASF Venture Capital and started its first investment office on the East Coast of the US. During his time in strategic venture units, he actively served on various boards of portfolio start-ups as director or observer and generated strong deal flow covering diverse technical fields being of interest for BASF Venture Capital and later on for M Ventures.

Instant Insights /

Saint-Gobain NOVA Names Merck Venture Investment Exec Harmsen as Director of External Venturing

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