Director
SevenCs GmbH

Born 1953, Dorsten/Westf. /Germany

Gert B. Büttgenbach is a graduate of the Institute of Ship Operation, Sea Transport and Simulation (ISSUS) located in Hamburg/Germany. Having studied mechanical engineering for six years at the Technical University in Aachen/Germany, he altered his course for the life at sea and obtained his master’s ticket in 1983 in Hamburg. Following his career as a nautical officer, he studied computer sciences and joined ISSUS in 1986 to participate in ECDIS related R&D. As the technical manager of the German ECDIS trials in 1990 and 1991, Gert and his team developed the world’s first production environment for digital charts in S-57 format. In 1992, he co-founded SevenCs, today one of the leading ECDIS developers in the world. His company delivers ECDIS software to manufacturers of navigational equipment and Hydrographic Offices. For many years, Gert has been a permanent observer to the IHO Transfer Standard Maintenance Working Group that controls the IHO S-57 standard as the core of ECDIS. The methodology of automatic updating of ENCs is based on his contributions. In 1998, Gert initiated the Open ECDIS Forum that provides a means to freely discuss ECDIS related topics on the Internet.

Publications:

Die Elektronische Seekarte, Hecht/Berking/Büttgenbach/Jonas, 1999 Wichmann Verlag, Heidelberg, ISBN 3-87907-303-1

http://www.sevencs.com