Sven Harmsen, PhD, joinedSaint-Gobain in April 2019 as Director External Ventures. Previously, Sven (as Investment Director) hadstarted the Performance Materials investment team as part of M Ventures (thecorporate venture arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) in 2016. In 2012 Svenhad relocated to the greater Boston area to work as Investment Principal atBASF Venture Capital (BVC), where he established BVC’s East Coast office inCambridge, MA to coordinate investment activities in the eastern half of NorthAmerica. Sven served as a Board Director for Advanced Bionutrition (ABN) and asa Board Observer for Aspen Aerogels and SLIPS Technologies. Originally he washired by BASF as Head of Global New Business Development for its agrochemicaldivision. Before joining BASF SE, Sven was responsible for business developmentafter heading the medicinal chemistry department of a VC backed (now publiclylisted) biotech company called 4SC near Munich.
Following a postdoc at StanfordUniversity, Sven started his career in R&D at companies like HoechstPharma/HMR (today: Sanofi), and AgrEvo/Aventis CropScience (today: Bayer).Sven studied chemistry at the JuliusMaximilians University Würzburg, Germany, and was awarded a Doctorate inScience. Sven is fluent in English and German.
