---
id: "entity-nicolas-sauvage"
type: "entity"
entityType: "person"
canonicalName: "Nicolas Sauvage"
aliases: []
source_timestamps: ["§ Introduction", "§ Readers Also Viewed These Items"]
tags: ["author", "practitioner", "cvc-leader"]
related: ["entity-tdk-ventures", "entity-ezra-carlson", "entity-mehdi-safavi"]
speakers: ["Nicolas Sauvage"]
sources: ["ecosystem"]
isSpeakerEntity: true
---
## Segment 11 — ecosystem

## Article 81 — a081

# Nicolas Sauvage

## Profile

Nicolas Sauvage is one of the **three co-authors** of the HBR article and the **president / managing director of [[entity-tdk-ventures]]**, the corporate venture capital arm of TDK Corporation. He is the article's practitioner anchor.

## Role in the source

Sauvage supplies the real-world operating perspective on CVC longevity. Under his leadership TDK Ventures manages **$500M in assets** and has invested in **50 deeptech startups** — the practical foundation for the article's insights.

## Attributed contributions to this vault

As the practitioner co-author, Sauvage grounds:
- The claim that CVC survival turns on internal boundary management rather than external markets — [[claim-internal-tensions-cause-stall]].
- The framework's operational steps and *practical steps for CVC leaders* — [[framework-cvc-boundary-management]] and the action-items ([[action-back-believers]], [[action-write-charter]], [[action-name-bridges]], [[action-tighten-operations]], [[action-spell-out-safe-spaces]], [[action-make-horizons-explicit]]).
- The reference set of successful CVCs used for comparison ([[entity-gv]], [[entity-tdk-ventures]]) named in [[question-quantifying-strategic-options]] as candidates for evidence on non-financial metrics.

## Enrichment / external corroboration

Sauvage is publicly identified as TDK Ventures' president/managing director, which is what grounds the article's practitioner authority.