L%C3%A9once Verny
Franois Lonce Verny, was a French officer and naval engineer who directed the construction of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan, as well as many related modern infrastructure projects from 1865 to 1876, thus helping jumpstart Japans modernization.
Lonce Verny was born in Aubenas, Ardche. He studied at Lyon and then went on to the prestigious cole Polytechnique. He entered the Institute for Applied Maritime Science at Cherbourg in 1858, where he became a Naval Engineer. He worked for the French state in the arsenals of Brest and Toulon.
Source: Wikipedia