Leadership
Basma Kharrat
Vice President, External Venturing
Paris, France
Basma Kharrat
Basma Kharrat serves as vice president, External Venturing. Based in Paris, France, she will oversee the global venturing efforts for Saint-Gobain. Under her leadership, NOVA’s investment focus will continue to focus on building win-win collaborations, and a commitment of open innovation and supporting startups.
Basma started her career in strategy consulting at BearingPoint, France, before joining Saint-Gobain in 2017. She worked first as Director of Strategic Planning, Mergers and Acquisitions for the Saint-Gobain Innovative Materials business unit, then as General Manager for the company’s ZirPro business within the Ceramics activity.
She is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines de Paris.
North America
Sven Harmsen
Director of External Ventures
Boston, United States
Sven Harmsen
Sven leads Saint-Gobain NOVA North America. In this role, Sven is responsible for driving NOVA’s growth strategy in alignment with overall corporate engagement and investments in startup companies.
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.
Fluent in English and German, he currently lives in the greater Boston area.
Outside of work, he enjoys outdoor activities like kayaking, sailing, hiking and spending time with his family.
Adarsh Sowcar
External Ventures Manager
Boston, United States
Adarsh Sowcar
Adarsh focuses on a wide range of technology areas to identify & building strategic partnerships between startups & Saint-Gobain’s Life Sciences, Supply Chain & Adfors Business Units.
Prior to joining Saint-Gobain, Adarsh worked in various Product Management & Marketing Strategy roles with Kennametal, InVue Inc & Saint-Gobain India. Adarsh holds an MBA from Hult International Business School in Boston & Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University in India. Outside of work, Adarsh enjoys learning history, cooking for his family & exploring nature.
Marcus Linde
External Ventures Manager
Cleveland, United States
Marcus Linde
Marcus is primarily focused on innovations and disruptions in close coordination with Saint-Gobain’s business units in the areas in the areas of ceramics, surface solutions and energy transition. With a strong focus on building strategic relations between partnering firms and Saint-Gobain’s corporate venturing arm business units, Marcus seeks to develop value-add relationships with all stakeholders.
Prior to NOVA, Marcus held roles in global business development and sales in building products, renewable energy and automotive components for several market-leading firms. Marcus holds an MBA from Baker College and a BS in Management from the University of Maryland University College.
Fluent in English and German, Marcus resides in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
Outside of work, Marcus is a volunteer mentor for College Now and enjoys outdoor activities, travelling, reading and an ongoing classic car restoration project.
Michel Nasilowski
External Ventures Manager
Boston, United States
Michel Nasilowski
Michel focuses on building successful partnerships between start-ups and Saint-Gobain businesses in life sciences, off-site construction, and ceramics. Michel holds a Ph.D. in Physics and Chemistry of Materials, from the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris, France (ESPCI Paris). He then completed a post-doctorate before becoming a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to joining Saint-Gobain, Michel worked as a Senior R&D Scientist in the Venturing and Partnerships teams at DSM and Covestro Additive Manufacturing. Fluent in English, French and Polish, he is based in Boston. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, woodworking, as well as outdoor activities such as hiking and sailing.
Europe
Claude-Sébastien Lerbourg
Director of External Ventures Europe
Paris, France
Claude-Sébastien Lerbourg
Claude is in charge of the NOVA team in Europe, he helps structure collaborations between Saint-Gobain businesses and startups in Europe.
Before joining the NOVA team in Europe, Claude was in charge of the NOVA team in Asia for 3 years, he also worked for 9 years at Saint-Gobain Abrasives in China. He started as a product engineer for construction products and spent four years as the automotive aftermarket business manager, leading the sales and product teams to adapt and import high-end solutions for this market.
Claude hold an MBA from China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and graduated from the ESSEC Business School in France. He also studied the Chinese language at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) in China and is fluent in Chinese with full professional proficiency.
His hobbies include photography, aeronautics, and fine wine.
Daphné de La Grandière
External Ventures Manager
Paris, France
Daphné de La Grandière
Based in Paris, Daphné focuses on circular economy startups to build strategic partnerships with Saint-Gobain’s companies. She also helps monitor general market trends and startup ecosystems.
Daphné joined the team after a year of work-study during her Master's Degree in Entrepreneurship and Business Management at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She graduated top of her class and wrote a thesis examining how collaborations between large groups and start-ups can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of large construction companies.
Daphné is very curious, she likes to discover new people, new cultures and learn continuously.
LinkedInColleen Schutte
External Ventures Manager
Paris, France
Colleen Schutte
Based in Paris, Colleen focuses across a range of technologies to identify opportunities and build strategic partnerships between startups and Saint-Gobain’s businesses.
With a background in law studies, Colleen passed the Paris Bar in 2019 and holds an MSc in Entrepreneurship from HEC and Polytechnique. Her master's thesis examined the intergration of ESG criterias in the venture capital practice.
In her spare time she enjoys hiking, traveling and historical literature.
Shiva Kianpoor
External Ventures Project Manager
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Shiva Kianpoor
Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Shiva focuses on startups around construction technology and healthy and sustainable building.
Prior to NOVA, she rotated within different units in Saint-Gobain and worked in operations on production processes, in R&D and in the central marketing team, both in Germany and France.
Shiva holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from TU Darmstadt, Germany.
She is fluent in Farsi, German and English and likes to travel and write.
Jonathan Williet
External Ventures Manager
Paris, France
Jonathan Williet
Based in Paris, Jonathan focuses on startups in Electric Mobility.
After a career start in the Strategy department of ENGIE he then joined Early Metrics, a rating agency for startups, where he led the ratings in the industry and energy sectors. He was there also heading the agency’s international expansion. Prior to NOVA, Jonathan was the Director of Aster Fab, a consulting boutique specializing in Venture Capital and sustainability.
Jonathan holds a Master’s in Management from EMLYON Business School, France.
In his spare time, he enjoys bouldering, boxing and twentieth century literature.
Asia-Pacific
Clara MARTINY
External Ventures Manager
Shanghai, China
Clara MARTINY
Based in Shanghai, Clara focuses on startups in Mobility. Prior to joining NOVA, she started her career in Private Equity at Cathay Capital in Paris, where she was in charge on screening and evaluating investments. She then joined Early Metrics, a startup rating agency in London & Shanghai and was responsible for startup evaluation and international expansion.
Clara holds a Master in Management from ESCP Business School in Paris and is fluent in Chinese.
In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, piano and coding.
Jing Zhou
External Ventures Project Manager
Shanghai, China
Jing Zhou
Based in Shanghai, Jing focuses across a range of technologies to identify opportunities and build strategic partnerships between startups and Saint-Gobain’s family of companies.
Prior to NOVA, Jing started her career in the role of management trainee with Metro Group where she worked in different business functions in China and also worked in Corporate innovation in Germany, she enjoyed connecting the dots among corporate, business units and entrepreneurs.
Jing holds a Master in International Management from Audencia Nantes Business School in France, before that, she got her Bachelor degree in German language and Literature from Nanjing Tech University, China.
In her spare time, Jing enjoys travelling, exploring new cities and meeting new people.
Tejas Rao
External Ventures Analyst
Chennai, India
Tejas Rao
Prior to joining NOVA, Tejas held positions at Bosch, Bayer and most recently at Buhler as a Strategic Business Development Manager, where he led start-up engagement and open innovation efforts in India. Tejas is deeply passionate about guiding innovations from the concept stage to commercial viability, often humorously referring to himself as an "Innovation Midwife.” He holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA) and an MBA from SDA Bocconi (Italy). Outside of work he enjoys running, meditation, riding motorcycles, and spending time with his wife and son.