Our inspirational COO Olivier Vigneron is the key figure driving the company's success and fostering a culture of innovation.

What is your mission in AXSMarine?

 As AXSMarine's COO, my role is to drive the company's existing and new developments and make sure they are delivered in the most optimum way to our clients. The process encompasses software development, data collection, data creation, and services. I am also articulating the different teams, so they produce the best services for our clients.
My favorite part of the job is turning concepts to reality, which is an extraordinary sensation of creation. I love seeing ideas progressively taking shape and turning into usable data or software. Such ideas can prevent me from sleeping for months or years, but once we show the finished product to our clients, the smile on their faces always makes it worth it.

How do you manage work-life balance?

AXSMarine has been a significant part of my life since 2000 and I fully commit to everything related to AXSMarine. 
We've been through such an exciting journey with the company that every day of work is filled with excitement and motivation. 
The key challenge is to stay focused on where I'm needed and ensure proper follow-up of the topics I'm delegating to my colleagues. 
Over time, I’ve learned how to insert time off in this permanent flow of motivating challenges and organize the work as a marathon in the past 23 years. 
AXSMarine  is not just a project; it’s of a lifelong and an extremely motivating one! 

What is your favorite hobby?

I have a few hobbies. Being a guitar player and music producer allows me to express my ever-present artistic fiber. Unleashing creativity and learning how to drive and turn it into a final product has been more than useful for my role at AXSMarine.
I am also passionate about what people call ghost hunting. Being in total darkness by night, surrounded by strange noises and manifestations and trying to document what you witness, is an incredible experience. You must master your inner fears, learn that your senses can mislead you, and force yourself to a lot of introspection and self-criticism about discovering how your own mind can interpret facts.
Obviously, a set of skills that one can use in nearly every business situation.
I’m a pet-lover and I am really concerned about animal protection.

How did you end up here?

In 1997, I got a Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence (AI). At that time, the universities were saying that AI had no future, and I was a fool to learn this branch of science. During my studies, I worked at the industry branch of Bureau Veritas where among other responsibilities, I was also involved in predictive maintenance of a huge park of lifts. Afterwards, I was an Engineer at an IT company.
Several years later, I ended up at BRS as my sales guy told me then that my experience at Bureau Veritas made me an expert in ships, while I had no clue what a damn DWT or LOA could be. An SNP broker helped me ramp up some industry knowledge and I discovered an incredible world.
In 2000 - -AXSMarine was launched - - I got proposed the role of CTO, which I accepted. This turned out to be a great challenge for me, which drove me towards constant professional and personal development.

How has the company evolved since being here in 2000?

When we started AXSMarine, I was mostly CTO of myself. We went through interesting times. I can remember this famous advisor company who wrote my technological choices of Linux and free software had strictly no future. In 2003, many people told us that decoding positions out of emails was useless and a waste of time. Four years later, we received similar statements about drawing polygons around berths.
The valuable lesson - believe in your work!
23 years later, we have grown to more than 200 people working at the company, and our users are thousands. Our latest AI systems are just providing an incredible edge to our clients, our datasets are unique and we are preparing many exciting projects.
I simply cannot believe it has been 23 years already. I feel it was yesterday, especially as many of my colleagues have been at the company for more than 10 years, and some of them have been there with me since day one.