Upon graduating from École Nationale de la Marine Marchande (now ENSM), which he joined in Marseille in 1990, Jean-Philippe Casanova was certified Captain 1st Class Maritime Navigation (C1NM) in 2000, and has spent most of his career sailing on car ferries and ro-pax vessels, as well as container ships and harbor tugs.

He was assigned as a marine pilot at the Marseille/Fos pilot station in December 2001. He headed the quality management system of the Fédération Française des Pilotes Maritimes from 2006 to 2012, then was elected General Secretary of the federation in 2012, a position he held until 2015, before being appointed President until July 2021.

He held the position of vice-president of the European Maritime Pilots’ Association from 2013 to 2017 and has been senior vice-president of the International Maritime Pilots’ Association since 2016.

He is a member of the Conseil Supérieur de la Marine Marchande, the Conseil Supérieur des Gens de Mer and the Board of Directors of ENSM, and regularly attends sessions of the International Maritime Organization as advisor to the French delegation.