Sven Harmsen serves as Director of External Ventures and leads the North America team of NOVA by Saint-Gobain, the external ventures arm of Saint‑Gobain. Sven drives NOVA’s growth strategy in alignment with overall corporate engagement and its investment strategy of startup companies. Previously, he worked at M Ventures, the global corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA, where he served as Investment Director. Sven holds a Ph.D. in Natural Sciences, with a focus on chemistry, from the Julius-Maximilians-University in Wuerzburg, Germany. He completed post-doctoral work at Stanford University. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.