Abeyta, a retired US Coast Guard lieutenant commander with 24 years of active service and more than 34 years of combined operational, acquisition, and defense industry experience, spent the past decade as Director of Business Development for Government Programs at Teledyne FLIR Maritime/Raymarine. There, he captured and managed more than $60 million in direct US Coast Guard contracts, including the Scalable Integrated Navigation System II (SINS II) program, which became the Coast Guard standard aboard more than 2,000 boats and cutters across over 50 vessel classes.
Besnard joins Barnacle after 13 years as a marine integration engineer at Pochon in France, where he designed and commissioned onboard systems across platforms including Garmin, Simrad, B&G, Raymarine, Furuno, FLIR, and Victron Energy. He previously integrated BRNKL Black, Barnacle’s defense-grade monitoring platform, into customer vessels before joining the company directly.
The dual appointments reflect Barnacle’s continued investment in both government-market growth and technical depth as demand increases for connected vessel technologies, fleet intelligence, and remote diagnostics across military, homeland security, and commercial fleets.
“Joseph brings something very special to Barnacle,” said Sean Battistoni, Chief Growth Officer at Barnacle Systems. “He understands the maritime mission from every angle—as an operator, a commander, an acquisition leader, and an industry executive. He’s spent his career earning the trust of operators, program managers, and procurement professionals by delivering technologies that make a measurable difference in the field. As we continue expanding across military, homeland security, and public safety markets, there is no one better suited to help us bring operationally proven technology to the organizations that depend on it most.”
“I’ve spent my career working alongside the men and women who go to sea to protect lives, defend our nation, and carry out difficult missions in some of the world’s most challenging environments,” said Joseph Abeyta. “The technology they rely on has to be dependable, intuitive, and built around the realities of operations. What attracted me to Barnacle Systems is that this isn’t simply another marine electronics company. BRNKL has developed an operational intelligence platform that transforms vessel data into actionable information that improves readiness, maintenance, training, and mission execution. I believe this technology has the potential to fundamentally change how government fleets operate, and I’m excited to help bring those capabilities to maritime organizations around the world.”
Abeyta will lead growth across the US Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, allied defense organizations, state and local marine agencies, and international government partners. Besnard will support Barnacle’s customers, partners, and dealers throughout North America and internationally as he and his wife relocate to the United States.
