[PROFILE] - Thibault Durieux - Hoist the mainsail and sail in polar regions

Can you introduce yourself in a few words?

My name is Thibault Durieux, I am an Iésegurk (is that still used?) from the class of 2019, so it's been over 10 years since I first stepped into this beautiful school. In 2020, I co-founded the association Nerrivik, which works to better understand and raise awareness of marine ecosystems by organizing sailing oceanographic expeditions in polar regions. The association also fights against school dropout by involving young people from priority neighborhoods in the crew.

What path did you take at IÉSEG and what memories do you have of your studies?

I graduated with a master's degree in auditing, management control, and corporate finance through an apprenticeship at Decathlon. Being a sports fan, and therefore a fan of Decathlon, I have great memories of this first professional experience within Artengo, the tennis brand of the group. IÉSEG also gave me the opportunity to do a one-year exchange in India, in Chennai, which confirmed my interest in everything that goes beyond the beaten path.

I have fond memories of those 5 years at the school, which also marked my first steps in the associative world through my involvement in The Lab Factory collective, created with friends from my class to promote our passion for alternative music genres throughout the Lille metropolitan area.

What have been the major milestones in your professional career?

Once I completed my master’s degree through the apprenticeship program, I went to Malaysia for 6 months to work at an orphanage in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. This experience was marked by the health crisis, which led me to experience a rather unique lockdown thousands of kilometers away from home. Upon returning in June 2020, I took a position in the financial management unit at Crédit Agricole's headquarters in Lyon. Responsible for creating management tools for the entire regional bank, I also conducted more specific studies on the balance between credit and deposits, as well as on the profitability of business centers.

My time at Crédit Agricole was interrupted by my first year-long expedition to Greenland. The company kindly granted me a sabbatical leave just 8 months after my arrival, while also sponsoring the expedition. Upon returning from this mission, I resumed my position and conducted further analysis on the net banking income (NBI). I really enjoyed these tasks of financial analysis and data querying within a large bank.

In October 2023, I joined IECD, an NGO running training and professional integration projects in many countries across Africa and Asia. I was responsible for management control for projects in Madagascar, where I had the chance to support the teams in their financial and administrative management by traveling to the field for extended missions.

Since January 2025, I have been fully committed to the Nerrivik association!

Where did the idea to create Mission Nerrivik come from? And what does Nerrivik mean?  😊

Nerrivik is an association I founded with 4 childhood friends, with the common desire to share our love for adventure and maritime exploration. The idea of reaching Greenland by sail also served our wish to contribute to the oceanographic research of several institutes that lack data collected in the Arctic zone.

In Inuit mythology, Nerrivik refers to the goddess of the sea and fishermen. However, we discovered that this translation only applies to the Inuit dialect of Alaskan tribes; for those in Greenland, Nerrivik means… table.

Over the course of the first three expeditions (Mission Nerrivik, Mission Ulysse, Mission Nanuq), the successive crews have worked on the three main missions that are the DNA of the association:

• Oceanographic research addressing issues of understanding and preserving the environment;
• The establishment of an educational program to spark schoolchildren's curiosity about the marine world and the people who inhabit it;
• The integration of young adults from disadvantaged neighborhoods into the crew.

How do you travel? How is the crew chosen to accompany you on these missions?

The expeditions are carried out aboard our trusty Bernick, a 40-foot steel ketch that we have fully renovated to meet the needs of Arctic navigation. Sailing is a very particular way of traveling; it’s a constant athletic challenge that also involves a sense of time and space that’s very different from our often frantic lifestyles.

The crews of the successive expeditions are made up of individuals who embody the values of the association and who each bring something valuable to the three main missions of the association. While they may not necessarily be professionals in their respective fields, they all have a strong commitment to delivering quality work on the oceanographic missions and the educational program, while also pitching in with the sailing.

For the crew of this fourth expedition, I also made sure to select profiles that would enjoy living together in a relatively small space for 6 months. This is a crucial key to the success of the mission: a balanced crew with complementary skills, who know how to trust each other and push their limits to meet the ambition of this Arctic journey.

How do you choose your next missions?

The choice of the expedition’s itinerary primarily responds to our desire to contribute to oceanographic research that lacks data collected in Arctic zones. By going to these almost unexplored areas, we provide access to valuable biological materials that help better understand the evolution of marine ecosystems, particularly in light of climate change.

Can you tell us about the next planned expedition? The Asgard mission.

In the Northern mythology, the realm of Asgard is an inaccessible land for humans, where the gods Odin, Thor, and other figures like Kyrill settled after creating humans. A fitting name for this fourth expedition, which aims for Svalbard, one of the few lands spared from the countless conquests of the intrepid Vikings.

The departure is planned for early July 2025, with a return to the Breton coast in late October 2025. Reaching the northernmost city in the world, Longyearbyen in Svalbard, will allow us to contribute to specific scientific programs:

• Detection of muons, originating from cosmic rays and sensitive to solar activity that causes the polar auroras;
• Sampling of methylmercury, which will help analyze the evolution of ocean acidity;
• Acoustic monitoring of cetacean populations in northern regions;
• Surveying Arctic bird colonies.

The crew will also continue observations made during the first three expeditions: sampling microplastics, collecting ichthyoplankton, and deploying weather buoys for Météo France.

The itinerary will also take us along the trail of the Vikings, providing us with an opportunity to develop an exciting educational program about these navigators. For each expedition, nearly 1000 schoolchildren follow Bernick on its exploration through an educational booklet written by the crew and brought to life throughout the expedition by videos shared on YouTube. The goal is to share our life as explorers aboard a sailboat, as well as to share our oceanographic studies and encounters with peoples whose ways of life are vastly different from our Western culture.

What do you see for the future? What are your goals?

The association aims to carry out two distinct projects: on one hand, oceanographic expeditions in polar regions, with an educational component, and on the other hand, the social reintegration project for young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

This social project has always been an integral part of the expeditions carried out with Bernick, but the experience has shown us that results only come when we spend many weekends with these young people, with support from professionals (addiction specialists, psychologists, career counselors, etc.). In the summer of 2024, three young people involved in this program, called Cap ou pas Cap, traveled to Greenland to sail on Bernick for about ten days.

This achievement, almost unbelievable when you consider the backgrounds of these young people, demonstrates that the program is producing results! We therefore aim to make it sustainable, with a team separate from those preparing the polar expeditions, with summer camps on more accessible coasts than Greenland, and with another boat fully dedicated to this project.

Website: https://www.mission-nerrivik.com/

Contact : contact@mission-nerrivik.com