Gaetan Mellier

VP Operations & Business Development | Marine Seismic & Subsea Technologies Leader | Underwater Acoustics & Energy Transition Expert | 25+ Years in Innovation & R&D Leadership

Houston, Texas, United States

About

With 25+ years at Sercel (Viridien), I specialize in marine seismic technologies, subsea systems, and underwater acoustics, bridging Oil & Gas, Renewables, and Defense. My expertise spans: 🔹 Technical Leadership: Pioneered Sentinel®, Nautilus®, and SeaRay® for high quality and cost effective seismic imaging. Developed MATS modems, Geotag, and QuietSea (marine mammal detection) with 10+ patents. 🔹 Strategic Impact: Led 70+ experts across 5 countries, contributing to $300M+ annual revenue. Diversified into Offshore Wind and Defense via partnerships. 🔹 Market Adaptation: Reshaped operations in a shrinking market, introduced Equipment-as-a-Service (EaaS), and launched MetaBlue to centralize seismic services. Open to: CTO, Director of Subsea Technologies, VP Underwater Systems, VP Strategy and innovation, Senior Principal Innovation & Technology, Senior Advisor Oil & Gas Technology. #MarineSeismic #SubseaTechnologies #UnderwaterAcoustics #EnergyTransition #Defense #Innovation #R&D #Leadership

Experience

  • Sercel (28 yrs 11 mos)
    • VP Operations & Business Development Manager | President of Sercel Inc.
      Oct 2024 - Present · 1 yr 10 mos

      Management of Sercel Houston operations, which include streamers and TPS. Sercel MetabBlue in action, by developing closer relationship with our Marine customers.

    • VP Marine Segment
      Oct 2021 - Sep 2024 · 3 yrs

      Propose and develop strategies to address Marine seismic market. In charge of defining new products, systems, solutions and services for the conventional marine seismic market: streamer systems, Ocean Bottom Nodes (OBN), seismic sources, Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) systems, etc. Develop our marine strategy towards new ventures (energy transition, defense, etc.), adapting our technology to new operational contraints: Marine mammals detection system (QuietSea), UHR streamer system (PIKSEL), Underwater Acoustics Systems (MATS modems, Geotag), Marlin Application Suite, etc. Management of a community of experts (Product Owners, System Engineers and Architects, test and validation teams) in a multi-site environment (Nantes France, Houston TX., Brest France, Saint-Gaudens France, Edinburgh UK)

    • VP Marine Product Development
      Sep 2003 - Oct 2021 · 18 yrs 2 mos

      In charge of towed arrays and seabed seismic acquisition product development (product requirements, specifications and designs) Main Products: Seal and Seal-428 recorders, ALS, Guardian Sentinel® and Sentinel® MS streamers, SeaRay® Ocean Bottom Cable System, Nautilus® streamer positioning system, SeaPro Nav navigation software suite. Technical Marketing: Product requirement definition and maintenance through a close relationship with Sercel’s Marine customers worldwide, attendance to geophysics trade shows and regular trips onboard seismic vessels. System Engineering: work with an external consultant to put in place a system engineering procedure to structure our product definition and decomposition. Multi-site projects management: Products design and manufacturing are shared between different sites in various countries (Nantes France, Houston TX., Brest France, Saint-Gaudens France, Alfreton UK, Sydney Australia). Sub-contractor management. Management of an R&D division in Nantes: Multi-disciplinary team (up to 45 people) with project management, system engineering, mechanical, electronic and software design skills. Budget management.

  • Board Member at Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique
    Jun 2021 - Aug 2024 · 3 yrs 3 mos

  • Conscript Scientist at DGA - Direction générale de l'armement
    Sep 1996 - Aug 1997 · 1 yr

    Designed software algorithms and tools to assist in detecting and identifying targets in SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images

  • Graduate Trainee at Zodiac Aerospace
    Apr 1996 - Jun 1996 · 3 mos

    Feasibility studies of an MPEG-2 video codec to be integrated in an embedded system Definition of an experimental plan (video capture, software simulations, qualitative and quantitative evaluations) and evaluation of the implementation. Technology watch on video compression components.