Page 14: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2010)

Interview: Bob Black, CEO, Seebyte 14 MTR September 2010

How did you initially take an interest in the maritime/subsea industry?

I’ve spent the last 20 years building technology and consulting businesses in the Defense & Security and Oil &

Gas sectors, but never both sectors at the same time. SeeByte has great trac- tion in the Military sector, and is per- fectly poised for stronger growth in the Oil & Gas sector. The opportuni- ty to join SeeByte as CEO was a great opportunity for me to deploy market knowledge from both sectors to drive the growth of a company.

How would you describe your man- agement style?

The principal job of any manager is to create an environment where teams can be successful. Managers achieve very little on their own.

SeeByte has a remarkable team of cre- ative and talented people assembled from around the globe. My principal objective is to ensure that our culture and environment removes any block- ers to their success.

Briefly describe SeeByte and its position in the subsea marketplace?

At its very core, SeeByte creates advanced software that’s used for managing unmanned and remote assets. We assist our customers in transforming their raw data into information that can be used for asset management and the operation of underwater vehicles. SeeByte aims to eliminate the difficulties faced by operators and to make their work safer, quicker and more accurate. We operate in the military and energy sectors, with a vision to become the premier smart-ware provider for own- ers and operators of remote vehicles and platforms.

What attracted you to accept the top spot at SeeByte?

I’ve always believed that if you get enough smart people together then anything is possible. SeeByte has retained a technology lead thanks to the quality of our people, and has a great track record of debt-free prof- itable growth. With the quality of our team and the opportunities before us, the potential was too attractive to ignore.

Taking the helm as CEO of SeeByte, what do you count as your biggest challenges relating to the company?

As I mentioned, SeeByte has a reputa- tion as a quality provider of smart software solutions. What people don’t realize is that we also have a great record of de-risking and fielding novel technologies from concept through to production. It is this aspect of the company that intrigues me as it has not been as well promot- ed in the past as it should have been.

I feel it’s an area where we can offer significant experience to our cus-

Five Minutes with

Bob Black, CEO, Seebyte

SeeByte, the Edinburgh-based developer of the software for managing unmanned and remote assets, recently appointed Bob Black as its new

CEO. Black, who joins Seebyte from Capgemini, where he headed its

Oil & Gas division in Aberdeen, will be tasked with the mission to take SeeByte deeper into global Energy and Defense markets, where its customers already number 11 of the world's leading Navies, several major oil companies and global offshore contractors. Black recently took the time to share with Marine Technology Reporter and its read- ers his insights on the company, his new position, and the subsea mar- ket in general. – by Greg Trauthwein, Editor