Meet Gijs Harmens
Customer Success Lead, EAMA

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1. What’s the story of your career so far? 

My career has been shaped by one consistent theme: helping maritime organizations make better decisions with data. I started out in a Technical onboarding role within the Maritime branch of the Dutch weather company MeteoConsult. That gave me first-hand exposure to how fragmented voyage planning, weather routing, and performance management often are—and how much risk and inefficiency that creates.

Over time, I moved closer to the commercial side of the industry, working with digital platforms providers like DTN, ZeroNorth and Bearing AI, focussing on voyage optimization, emissions, and operational insight.

2. What made you say “yes” to Sofar and what are you most excited to build?

It was a combination of the team, the ambition of the product. Sofar isn’t just building software for shipping; it’s building a new way for the industry to interact with the ocean itself.

What really stood out to me was how Sofar translates ocean data from their Spotters and vessel data into decisions people can trust. That’s incredibly hard to do well, and incredibly valuable when it actually works.

3. What will you be working on at Sofar (and why does it matter)?

My role focuses on helping customers extract real operational and commercial value from Wayfinder. That means working closely with vessel owners, operators, and charterers to understand their constraints, and ensuring Wayfinder fits naturally into how decisions are actually made.

This matters because Wayfinder’s mission isn’t just about better routes; it’s about enabling better outcomes at sea plus fewer surprises, lower emissions and safer voyages.

4. From your perspective, what are the biggest challenges for vessel owners, operators, and charterers right now, and where can Wayfinder help most?

One of the biggest challenges is operating in an environment with rising costs, tighter margins, and increasing regulatory and environmental pressure, while still relying on fragmented tools and subjective judgment calls.

Wayfinder helps by creating a shared, objective view of the voyage. When everyone is working from the same high-resolution environmental data and performance models, decisions become clearer, discussions become faster, and accountability improves.

5. Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities for Wayfinder to grow?

I see major opportunities in adoption among charterers and commercial teams, where route and speed decisions directly influence cost, emissions, and contract performance.

Ultimately, the biggest opportunity is trust, becoming the system people rely on when the decision really matters.