Alexandre NEUILLY
Senior Hydrographic surveyor, AUV operator
Explorer of the deep-sea
His background, as rich and fascinating as the seabed he studies, resonates deeply with the company’s core mission.
Alexandre Neuilly spent his early years in Egypt and was named after Alexandria, the key city in the land of the Pharaohs. Later, with his parents, he moved to France and then Ghana. But it was on Belle-Île, a holiday resort and family reunion spot, that he developed his love of the sea, which he practiced through sailing and diving, and which gave a “salty taste” to his life and career.
After high school, Alexandre naturally enrolled at the oceanography school of the CNAM Intechmer in Cherbourg. At the end of his studies, he joins Créocéan for an internship, where Jean-Marc Sornin and Michel Colinet still officiate.
With his hydrography diploma in hand, Alexandre Neuilly set up his own seabed mapping company, and regularly works as a subcontractor for Créocéan.
“We are explorers, not adventurers”, Alexandre reminds us. For a company specialising in the search for shipwrecks, Alexandre helped to bring to the surface of the City of Cairo at a depth of more than 5,150 m (a world record) a treasure of 82 tonnes of silver, sunk during the Second World War….For a Dutch company responsible for installing wind turbines, he went in search of any bombs or dangerous objects buried in the depths….Missions followed one another around the world. West Africa, South-East Asia, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea…
Alexandre went from amateur diver to professional diver. He is an experienced ocean racing skipper and a keen solo sailor. In 2011, he became the second Frenchman to win the Rolex Fastnet Race as a crew member.
Alexandre was called up in 2023 to join ABYSSA and followed the HUGIN operator training team at Kongsberg discovery in Norway.
On land, Alexandre prepares and plans the missions before embarking on the boats with his long-time partner, Hervé Sourisseau. Alexandre is also in charge of developing the patented drone fleet, a highly strategic role.
Alexandre’s vision for ABYSSA is to work with recognized experts, using state-of-the-art equipment to push back the boundaries of underwater knowledge.
His ambition is to be among the first to discover unexplored underwater territories.
