Leadership
Minas Apelian
Vice-President of Internal and External Venturing
Philadelphia, United States
Minas Apelian
Minas joined CertainTeed Corporation in 2013 following tenures at J.M. Huber and Mobil Oil Corporation. His experience in General Management, Operations, Research & Development, and Innovation informs his visionary pragmatism. Today he leads and shapes CertainTeed’s innovation strategy and launched a customer-focused platform approach to R&D for the business. Minas holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from MIT. He has authored a number of papers and is an inventor or co-inventor on 17 patents.
Personally, he is an avid wine enthusiast and foodie.
North America
Sven Harmsen
Director of External Ventures
Boston, United States
Sven Harmsen
Located in the Boston area, Sven leads Saint-Gobain NOVA’s North America team and is responsible to drive NOVA’s broader growth strategy as well as the company’s strategy around engaging and investing in startups and their relationships with Saint-Gobain businesses.
With more than 15 years of experience in R&D, business development and corporate venturing, Sven’s expertise will help Saint-Gobain NOVA enhance its partnership activities with like-minded startups and grow the company’s investment portfolio.
Prior to joining Saint-Gobain NOVA, Sven served as Investment Director at M Ventures, the global corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. From M Ventures’ office in Cambridge, Mass., 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. Sven entered the CVC world while working at BASF. For BASF Venture Capital (BVC) he opened their first office on the U.S. East Coast. During his time in strategic venture units, he covered the whole investment process from identifying relevant investment targets all the way to serving on the Board of Directors at some of the portfolio companies.
Sven holds a Ph.D in Natural Sciences with a focus on chemistry from the Julius-Maximilians-University of Wuerzburg in Germany. Subsequently he worked as a Postdoc at Stanford University.
Outside of work, he enjoys outdoor activities like kayaking, sailing, hiking and spending time with his family.
Ben Price
External Ventures Project Manager
Boston, United States
Ben Price
Ben focuses primarily on construction tech, innovative building materials and other disruptions to the construction value chain and built environment. Motivated to build strategic partnerships between startups and Saint-Gobain’s family of companies, Ben is interested in both digital and physical innovations.
Prior to NOVA, Ben worked in strategy consulting within innovation and product development and ran a micro-venture investment fund. Ben graduated from Union College with a Bachelor’s of Science and Arts in Economics and Psychology. His continuing education included an exchange program on Applied Economics at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
Outside of work, Ben is a member of the Caritas Communities Young Leader Board and Flying Kites Board of Ambassadors. He enjoys travelling, skiing and is a Boston sports fan.
Robin Milshtein
External Ventures Project Manager
San Francisco, United States
Robin Milshtein
Robin is based in San Francisco. In her role, she is focused on startups of strategic interest to the High Performance Solutions sector of Saint-Gobain. Prior to joining the external ventures team, Robin worked for several businesses within the High Performance Solutions sector, with roles in R&D, business development, and strategic marketing.
Robin holds a M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Union College.
Robin enjoys outdoor activities, traveling, and learning about new things.
Adarsh Sowcar
External Ventures Project 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 Performance Plastics & 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.
Europe
Zahia TOUTOU-MELINGE
Senior External Ventures & Business Development Manager
Paris, France
Zahia TOUTOU-MELINGE
Based in Paris, Zahia seeks the best startups from all over the world to build strategic partnerships with Saint-Gobain’s construction products' family of companies for mutual growth. She focuses on innovative solutions to increase the comfort and well-being of building occupants, to bring ergonomics and comfort for people who build as well as innovative solutions to gain productivity at job sites.
Prior to joining NOVA team, Zahia worked for more than 12 years at Saint-Gobain construction products’ companies in France and UK, leading Research, Developing and implementing new solutions with a strong cooperation with Marketing, purchasing and operations in a multinational environment. Prior joining Saint-Gobain she has worked for 11 years in academic Labs running Research and Lecturing in Algeria and France.
Zahia holds an Engineer Degrees in Civil Engineering at Algerian University and a PhD degree in Civil Engineering Materials from INSA de Rennes in France. She has authored a number of papers on Rheology of cement based materials and generated 10 patents as inventors or co-inventor within Saint-Gobain.
Zahia is fluent in 4 languages. Outside of work, she enjoys oriental dancing, mountains hiking and cooking.
Daphné de La Grandière
Analyst
Paris, France
Daphné de La Grandière
Based in Paris, Daphné has a dual responsibility. She is an analyst and must therefore monitor market trends and the ecosystem of start-ups. More specifically, her role is to evaluate and initiate collaborations with start-ups operating in the circular economy that may have applications for all Saint-Gobain businesses around the world.
Daphné joined the team on a permanent basis after a year of work-study during her Master 2 in Entrepreneurship and Business Management at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She graduated at the top of her class and wrote a thesis to understand how collaboration 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.
LinkedInJonathan Bainée
External Ventures Project Manager
Paris, France
Jonathan Bainée
Jonathan identifies new opportunities for collaborations between startups and Saint-Gobain’s family of companies with a focus on the digital consumer journey and the wide range of technologies that aim to enhance building occupant comfort and well-being.
Before joining NOVA, Jonathan worked as a lecturer at the engineering school ENSTA ParisTech and for a French public organization dedicated to the promotion of photonics technologies and industries.
Jonathan holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Paris-Sorbonne University, where he studied technical and business model issues applied to cleantech, especially in transport.
He enjoys taking road trips to explore countries around the world.
Raphaël Lanté
External Ventures Project Manager
Paris, France
Raphaël Lanté
Located in Paris, Raphaël focuses on building strategic partnerships in the field of sensors and connected objects. He has worked in product development for various businesses within Saint-Gobain’s family of companies, bringing multiple products to the market, from flat-coated glass patterned by laser to fiberglass with nanoscale coatings.
He holds a M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from CPE Lyon.
Raphaël is fluent in four languages, thanks to his professional experiences abroad. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling and cooking for his family.
Asia-Pacific
Claude-Sébastien Lerbourg
External Ventures Project Manager
Shanghai, China
Claude-Sébastien Lerbourg
Claude helps structure collaborations between Saint-Gobain businesses and startups in Asia-Pacific.
Before joining the NOVA team, Claude worked for nearly 10 years at Saint-Gobain Abrasives in China. He started as a product engineer for construction products and spent the last 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 graduated from the ESSEC Business School in France. He studied the Chinese language at Shanghai International Studies University in China and is fluent with full professional proficiency.
His hobbies include photography and aeronautics, but he spends most of his free time going out with friends and meeting new people.
Jing Zhou
External Ventures Associate 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.