Meet Gilles, who helps captains confidently make decisions at sea

From air traffic control systems to maritime tech, Gilles has always gravitated toward product roles in mission critical decision-making environments.

With a background in computer engineering and a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction, he started by designing tools for air traffic controllers - an environment where clarity is critical and every decision matters.

Since then, he’s stayed close to one thing: building products for people making real-world decisions.

Today, as the Product Designer for Syroco, he helps shape the solution across the full user journey, from voyage preparation to decisions at sea, and post-voyage analysis.

What drives him?

Gilles works on tools used by captains, operators and Onwatch teams to prepare voyages, navigate, and learn from past routes.

What drives him most? Make these different users work together.

Crews, onshore teams, and internal operations all rely on the same information, but use it differently. His role is to connect these perspectives, making sure everyone shares the same understanding at the right moment.

What motivates him?

Making tools that actually fit how people work.

He’s spent his career working on systems where decisions matter, and where tools need to support users, not get in the way.

For him, it’s about staying close to real usage, and making sure what’s designed onshore makes sense at sea.

What matters most?

Trust.

“Everything revolves around trust. It’s hard to build… and very easy to break.”

At sea, trust isn’t optional.

Captains rely on the information they use. Operators rely on the data behind it.

The goal isn’t to replace decisions but to support them, clearly and reliably.

And beyond work?

Outside of Syroco, Gilles enjoys time with his family and likes discovering food from around the world.

He also likes observing what nature has to offer, capturing landscapes, small details, and unexpected moments along the way.

For him, good design is simple!

Supporting people with the right data, at the right time, to make the right decisions.