Meet our team

Jonas Schneider

CEO ASSISTANT

French, American and Swiss, with degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, he is soon to be a graduate of EDHEC Business School. He will accompany us in our growth in the United States.

With over 10 years of sailing experience and love for the nautical world, Jonas is convinced of Falco's solution and is eager to take part in the connected transition of marinas.

Maxime Bihannic

sales manager

Maxime graduated as a materials engineer and worked as a business manager in a digital services company before joining Falco. Attracted by the challenge of being a sales manager in a growing company, Maxime is dedicated to business development activities while participating in the definition of Falco's evolving offer.

Elsa Nicol

CO-FOUNDER, CEO

Mechanical Engineer graduated from INSA Lyon and  PMP® MSP® MOP® et SAFe® certified project manager, Elsa has more than ten years of experience in high-tech product development. She worked 5 years in Californie as a project and engineering manager in the marine communications industry, at Cobham Satcom, partner of Volvo Ocean Race.

Keoma Laguna

CO-FOUNDER, CTO

Ph.D. in computer sciences graduated from Paris 6 University, specialised in wireless networks, Keoma has been involved in the setting up of several data collection systems in three continents. Curious and motivated, he helps marinas address new issues through his knowledge in the deploiment of high-reliability wireless networks.

Thomas Watteyne

CO-FOUNDER, SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR

Internationally renown expert in low-power wireless mesh technologies, Thomas supports Wattson Elements as a scientific advisor.

Thomas has deploied more than 1 000 sensors in three continents. He is head of a research team at Inria Paris research center and gives his contribution as network architect at Analog Devices, the market leader.

Thomas leads the standardisation effort of this technology – IETF 6TiSCH working group – in order to allow this branch of IoT to develop securly and in an optimised way in different sectors of the industry.

Olivier Laporte

CO-FOUNDER, CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGER

Merchant Navy Captain and Environmental Engineer, Olivier has been involved for over 20 years in sustainable development of the marin environment.

Chief Expeditioner and Project Manager for several major stakeholders of the scientific (CNRS, CEA, Conservatoire du Littoral) and technical (Ecotank, Monaco Marine) community, Olivier provides Wattson Elements with his expertise, his network and his enthousiasme.

Specialised in harbor environmental managment, Olivier is convinced that the Falco solution will allow ports to combine digital and ecological transition and to become more efficient and resilient.

Anna Bednárik

OFFICE MANAGER

Trained translator, Anna worked several years as research team assistant at the Inria research center, where Falco was born.

Since October 2020, she has joined Falco to help with accountancy, human resources, communication, follow-up of the operations etc. where her organisational skills and her taste for the details are important assets.

Jim Lamarche

PARTNER - GENERAL MANAGER NORTH AMERICA

Jim combines a unique entrepreneurial background as the co-founder and CEO of an AI startup as well being a small business owner and commercial tuna captain. Prior to branching out on his own, he spent 16 years at Cisco Systems in Sales, Business Development, Corp Finance, and Channel Management. Along with his love for the water, he is passionate about creating unique solutions and building value for his customers.

Benoît Besnard

PARTNER - CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER

Fine arts graduate, with more than twenty years of experience in the web, Benoit worked in the marketing (Publicis Etoile), in the consulting - in agency (Capgemini) and as an independant -, and he has been associated to the start-up creation.

The huge variety of missions he has been involved in makes him a global digital expert. He is specialised in User Expérience (UX), User Interface (UI), customer journey, customer relation, digital marketing, social media and e-business.

Yann Guais

BUSINESS DEVELOPER EUROPE

Yann is from Brittany and lives in Montpellier. Graduated in Project Management at ESCEM Tours, he had been working several years in the international logistics (DHL).

Fond of environment, boating and innovation, he has worked as business and marketing developer for start-ups launching new harbor services.

Trifun Savic

R&D ENGINEER / Ph.D. CANDIDATE

R&D Engineer and Ph.D candidate at Sorbonne University, Trifun is working mainly on the design and development of connected objects and devices designed for marinas.

Interested in applied research and driven by new challanges, Trifun has undertaken doctoral studies as part of a partnership between Falco and Inria Paris.

Jonathan Munoz

IoT ENGINEER

Ph.D in Computer Science, graduated from the Sorbonne, Jonathan made his research in low-power long-range wireless sensors networks.

Currently, he works on R&D tasks for our IoT products.

Emmanuel Sandorfi

BACK-END ENGINEER

Emmanuel comes from an IBM engineering background and has always designed applications for large and small companies, in France and in the USA. Passionate by nature and at the disposal of the community, he joined Wattson Elements, and contributes to the development and reliability of the digital ecosystem of marinas.

Lila Gazeau

FRONT-END ENGENEER

IT Engineer, graduated from IMAC Paris, Lila joins Falco after a first successful professional experience.

Millenial, Lila shares with Falco her culture of the web and her outlook on usages. Glad to integrate a multidisciplinary team, she is looking forward to discovering the boating industry.