Maryse Levavasseur

Maryse grew up in the Cotentin countryside, in a setting she describes as quite lonely and isolated. A good student, she especially enjoyed understanding how things worked. She watched her father tinker with things and followed the first episodes of C’est pas sorcier. She also learned to play the keyboard between the ages of 8 and 13. As a teenager, she often went on bike rides through the countryside with a friend.

In high school, Maryse knew she wanted to study science and initially considered biology. After completing her baccalaureate, she enrolled in a BCPST preparatory program in Caen, but the school, boarding-school life, and her relationships with her teachers were not a good fit for her. Still, she did not reject the preparatory-class system itself: the following year, she changed schools and study tracks to study physics and chemistry as well as engineering sciences. Her studies went better in this new environment.

During her preparatory studies in the late 1990s, Maryse discovered the internet just as its use was becoming more widespread. For the young student raised in an isolated setting, this opening onto the world changed everything. Admitted to an engineering school specializing in computer science in Évry, she realized she had found her path. She chose courses focused on networks and practical computing, then earned her engineering degree in 2002. She received a means-tested scholarship and completed all her studies at public institutions.

After graduating, Maryse moved to Brest and looked for a job for more than a year. Recruiters wanted experience, but she preferred to wait rather than choose a field she did not like. Following advice, she returned to school for a year in Le Mans, in a class of twelve where she was the only woman, then completed an internship in Brest focused on voice over IP. A few months after her internship, she landed her first position, an assignment at Sagem Communication's offices working on the telephony features of internet gateways.

After three years of software development at Sagem Communication’s offices, Maryse wants to try something new. She then spends two and a half years testing software at Thalès’s offices, but the highly repetitive work suits her less well. In 2010, she joins Netasq in northern France to return to software development; the company becomes Stormshield in 2014. After nine years spent improving a large network security software product, she changes roles in March 2020 and takes on coordination between support and R&D, just as remote work drives a sharp increase in use of the product.