Blainville, France

 
Part of the Volvo Ocean Race
In his everyday life, Nicolas Leonard works with end-user support for Volvo IT and is stationed at Renault Trucks in Blainville.

However, when he was offered the chance to be a part of the Volvo Ocean Race, he did not hesitate for a second. For two months in Alicante, he was a part of the Volvo IT crew in Spain and, during the stop-over in Marstrand, Sweden, he was promoted to team leader.

“The sea and sailing are my passion and I love the challenge of a job where anything can happen,” says Nicolas, who is no novice when it comes to sailing. He was only 16 when he sailed across the Atlantic from the French mainland to Martinique for the first time.

During this year’s Volvo Ocean Race, he has been deploying network connections, making sure the networks are secure and helping users with a wide range of problems. Day and night.

“It’s a stressful job, but that’s why I like it. I never know what’s going to happen the next day and, to solve the problems, I just do what it takes – whether it’s driving a fork-lift or a RIB boat to deploy the network,” he says.

Anybody who has used a computer is familiar with the mounting frustration when it just will not work. Nicolas calls himself and his colleagues “the men of shadows”.

“We don’t come out and get noticed until something goes wrong,” he says. Nicolas Leonard is not one to avoid problems. On the contrary, he goes looking for them.

During the start in Alicante, he rode a bike around the race village every day, asking if there was anything he could do. Even just to bring a cup of coffee or tea.

“When a lot of people who are strangers meet, an icebreaker is needed to get to know each other. If I bring somebody coffee, that can be enough to make contact.”

Nicolas Leonard could drive the Windows operating program with his eyes closed, something he almost had to do when a nightmare of a problem occurred in Alicante.

Being available 24 hours a day to solve IT problems for the Volvo Ocean Race has been a dream job for Nicolas Leonard.
“It’s amazing to see people smiling, knowing that they can count on the IT guys,” he says.