Philippe graduated from TELECOM ParisTech (84), and spent most of his carreer in the Thales Group (formerly Thomson CSF).
Philippe started in system engineering positions from 85 to 87, and then project-managed the French SSN sonar upgrade program until 1990. After heading the towed-array sonar group for two years, he was appointed technical director of SAES in Cartagena in 1992 ( Sociedad Anonima de Electronica Submarina ). He left Spain to join Thomson Sintra Pty in Sydney-Australia in 1996 where he first led the submarine product line, and then took over all Defense Activities in 1998. In 2000, he came back to head the active sonars group of Thomson Marconi Sonars in Sophia Antipolis – France. In 2004, he took over an SME, Thales Safare, which was facing some tough business difficulties and turn it back into profit. In 2006, he was appointed VP special products Business Unit of Thales Underwater Systems, and in 2008 took over the role of VP Active Sonars and Torpedoes, world-wide. Philippe joined iXBlue as President and CEO in June 2010.
Management Team
Our board of Directors is led by Philippe Debaillon Vesque, who is also taking care of the general management of the group. To ensure the required consistency across all activities, he is assisted by three senior staff:
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Activities are organized around 8 business areas:
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Philippe Debaillon Vesque President & CEO
Hervé Lefèvre Chief Scientific Officer
Hervé graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud in Physics and was awarded a Doctorate in Optics-Photonics from the University of Paris-Orsay in 1979. His Doctorate research was performed at Thales (then Thomson-CSF) Central Research Laboratory and his thesis subject was pioneering work on fiber-optic gyroscope.
From 1980 to 1982, he was a post-doctoral research associate at Stanford University in California, continuing R&D on fiber-optic gyroscope. In 1982, he came back to Thales Central Research Lab and became head of the fiber-optic sensor team. In 1987, he joined Photonetics, then a start-up, and became director of R&D. In addition of fiber-optic sensors and gyroscopes, the company developed a very successful line of test instruments for optical fiber communications.As the company grew, he moved to the position of Chief Operating Officer in 1999. At the end of year 2000, Photonetics was acquired by the Danish group Nettest while its fiber-gyro activity was spun out to create iXSea. Hervé remained in Nettest and managed its Photonics Division.
In 2004, he moved to iXCore, the parent company of iXSea, as vice-president for R&D with a specific involment in iXSea's activity, and became Chief Scientific Officer of iXBlue at its creation in 2010. Hervé is also President of the European Optical Society for the 2010-2012 period.
Fabien Napolitano Chief Product Development Officer
Fabien Napolitano graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure de la rue d'Ulm (Paris). In addition to a Doctorate in pure mathematics (2000), he taught computer science for four years at University Paris Dauphine. Fabien joined iXSea in 2000 at the creation of the company to develop a range of Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) based on iXSea Fiber-Optic Gyroscopes (FOG). After two years spent in developing the PHINS navigation system, he took the lead of the inertial navigation R&D team to continue the expansion of iXSea towards very high performance systems (which were achieved in 2005 with MARINS system). In 2004, he took the lead of iXSea Acoustic Division in Brest. During three years he enhanced in particular the research and development capabilities of Brest site leading to achievements of products such as GAPS acoustic positioning system, renewed DELPH imagery software suite, DELPHINS inertial navigation system post-processing software and the start of RAMSES innovative synthetic long base line system. Beginning of 2008, he moved back to Marly le Roi to lead iXSea Inertial Systems Division, in charge of continuing the expansion of the whole activity as well as starting new developments for future markets. Since mid-2010, Fabien is Chief Product Development Officer of iXBlue.
François Ravier Chief Financial Officer