Experience in PR: 24 years

Expertise in technology industry: 24 years

Specialisations: Healthcare technology, enterprise IT, Clean Tech

Client experience: IBM, Microsoft, Picis, Intelligent Energy

Professional qualifications: MSc Chemistry from Durham University

On completion of a MSC in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Durham University Julian began his career in technology PR in 1985. He has since covered almost all areas of the industry, from component electronics to systems software, and from mobile devices to mainframe computers.

His career took him from Paris to Silicon Valley before he returned to the UK to found AxiCom in November 1994, in the ensuing years he has built the company from a two-person start-up to a global business with over 100 employees.

Julian’s other claims to fame are that he worked for 3-Michelin-star chef Raymond Blanc for five years, wrote the press release that launched Microsoft Windows and owns the world’s largest dog.

Experience in PR: 27 years

Expertise in technology industry: 22 years

Specialisations: Telecoms, international programme management

Client experience: Most recently Dell, ZTE, IBM, Fractus

Professional qualifications: BA, Dip. Marketing, Dip. Teaching

Australian by birth, Lyle started work as a business press journalist in Sydney, then worked in PR and marketing roles, in agencies and in-house, across the full spectrum of technology business.

Lyle moved to the UK with his family in 1991 and worked as PR Manager for global accounting software company Sage before moving to London to work on the IBM account with a London agency. He then moved to Ogilvy PR where he led the European technology practice for five years, his primary client being IBM’s EMEA agency network. He joined AxiCom in February 2001.

An experienced climber, Lyle was a member of the Australian Bicentennial Antarctic Expedition which in 1988 made the first ascent of Mount Minto, one of the highest mountains in Antarctica.

Experience in finance: 22  years

Expertise in PR industry: 15 years

Professional qualifications: Chartered Accountant

Sabine has been the financial director of AxiCom in Europe since 2004.  Originally joining AxiCom Germany as head of finance in 1997, Sabine took  responsibility for the financial operation of an increasing number of AxiCom's European offices before being promoted to European finance director. 

Prior to AxiCom, Sabine worked in pan-European financial management for a Fortune 500 company.   Sabine graduated from Munich University and then qualified as a chartered accountant.

Experience in PR: 27 years

Specialisations: Telecommunications, Electronics, Enterprise Computing, Digital Media

Client experience: Motorola, BT, Cirrus Logic, Citrix, VMware, Softimage, Avid

On completing an MA in German literature, arts and communications, Martina began her media career at Bild, Europe’s highest circulation daily newspaper, before moving into public relations. Thanks to her experience working on high profile technology accounts such as Apple and Motorola, Martina was the ideal candidate to extend the AxiCom brand in Europe and she joined AxiCom in 1997to found the German office.

Martina has a passion for Asia (in particular Thailand) and in her younger days travelled extensively. These days her wanderlust is curtailed somewhat by four children and a musical husband.  She is happy to report however that Thai cuisine and sushi are reasonably easy to come by in Munich so not all is lost!

Experience in PR: 20 years

Expertise in technology industry: Extensive experience across technology industry from enterprise computing to consumer tech

Specialisation: Media relations, analyst relations

Client experience: ARM Holdings. Fujitsu, Neverfail, Sling Media, IBM, HP, ADT Security, PC World to name a few

Professional qualifications: BA Hons Economic History, 5 years as technology journalist, Member of IIAR (International Institute of Analyst Relations)

Helen was born on an oil refinery in Venezuela and spent her childhood in South America. She graduated from Liverpool University with a BA Hons. in Economic History.

Helen has 15 years experience in IT communications working as a journalist and PR professional. Helen started her career as a high-tech journalist working for EMAP Business & Computing on CadCam International and IBM System User and later as a freelance writer contributing to a wide variety of titles including PC User, Computing, Informatics and Financial Director.

She moved into PR in 1991 where she helped to grow and ultimately lead a high-tech practice. Helen co-founded AxiCom in November 1994 and has helped to manage and build the company’s business in the UK and across Europe.

Helen owns a gifted and talented cat called Sam who has learnt how to open doors.

Experience in PR: 12 years

Expertise in technology industry: 24 years

Specialisations: Digital and new media, broadcasting technology, online advertising

Client experience: Avid, Aedgency, Alias (now part of Autodesk), Ascent Media, Brightcove, Blue Order, DoubleClick, Epsilon Interactive, E-skills, Inuk Networks, Harmonic Inc, IBM, Media Initiatives Group, NDS, Netgem, NN/g, Pace, Panasonic, PC World, Rapid Mobile, RealNetworks, RockYou, SeaChange, Sling Media, TDK, TopupTV, Tridion, Softimage, Visual Sciences (now part of Omniture), VNU, WebEx.

Professional qualifications: Joint Honours in Psychology & Sociology at Bristol University

Stephen Orr has worked in communications for the past 19 years, initially as a marketing executive then as a B2B journalist, before moving into PR and heading up the Digital Media & Marketing Team at AxiCom.

A seven year stint as a journalist saw Stephen editing high profile graphics and digital media magazines, including market leading titles including Publishing Magazine and Video Age. He joined AxiCom in 1998 as an Account Director, establishing Digital Media as the first of the agency’s dedicated pan-European practices.

Experience in PR: 12 years

Expertise in technology industry: 12 years

Specialisations: Telecoms & networking, mobile & wireless, open source

Client experience: ZTE, Red Hat, Jasper Wireless, Kineto Wireless, Sagem Wireless, ShoreTel, Openet, Actix, Flarion Technologies, Trigenix

Professional qualifications: BScEcon (Hons); Mphil

Richard is the associate director leading AxiCom’s telecoms and wireless practice.  He joined AxiCom in 1999, initially working across multiple IBM accounts before going on to found and build the telecoms expertise within the agency. 

Prior to joining AxiCom, Richard graduated with first class honours in International Politics and International History from the University of Wales and went on to lecture in economic history at Aberystwyth. 

Should events ever take a turn for the worse in the world of Technology PR then Richard has been trained in bushcraft by Ray Mears, he can light a fire by rubbing sticks together and make a rope out of stinging nettles.

Experience in PR: 12 years

Expertise in technology industry: 13 years

Specialisations: Enterprise hardware, software and services, virtualization and applications

Client experience: Dell, IBM, HP, Dell, Citrix, VMware, iPass, e-skills UK

Professional qualifications: BA (Hons) Business Studies 

Henry Brake heads up AxiCom’s enterprise computing team and has an in-depth knowledge of the IT industry, specialising in enterprise software, services and infrastructure.  During the 12 years that Henry has been with AxiCom, he has been instrumental in the growth of AxiCom's enterprise computing portfolio.

Henry graduated from the University of the West of England with a degree in Business Studies. He spent his placement year at Sun Microsystems where he provided marketing and public relations support to Sun's Public Sector sales team.

Away from work, Henry recently planted a vineyard in the hope of toasting his 40^th birthday with his own wine.

Experience in PR: 11 years

Expertise in technology industry: 11 years

Specialisations: Consumer Technology, Social Media, Community Building

Client experience: Dell, Creative Labs, Blurb, Garmin, Handspring, Alienware, MTV

Professional qualifications: BA Hons Drama

Kate began her career launching the first hard-disk based MP3 player, the Creative DAP Jukebox. She went on to run the Creative Labs account for over four years where developed a keen eye for a good gadget.

She joined AxiCom in early 2007 as Account Director working on a range of telecoms and mobile clients, she then went on to take responsibility for running AxiCom’s consumer technology practice in 2008.

Kate is a native speaker of the Welsh language who moved to the bright lights of London to study Drama at the University of Surrey.  She has written and performed stand-up comedy and can occasionally be seen as a talking head on BBC3 comedy list shows.

Experience in PR: 11 years

Expertise in technology industry: 10 years

Specialisations: Enterprise hardware, software and services, open source, big data and security

Client experience: Red Hat, Fujitsu, Ericsson, Dell Wyse, ABBYY, Adyen, International Telecommunication Union

Professional qualifications: BA (Hons) Marketing 

Sally oversees a practice specialising in Enterprise computing in all its guises. Sally started her career at Mars Corp working within its technology division. She has more than 11 years technology PR and Marketing experience, both in-house and within agencies, most recently running her own marketing communications and PR agency specialising in professional services technology.  Sally has worked with a range of blue chip organizations including Vodafone, Microsoft, Autonomy, Open Text and LexisNexis Butterworth as well as smaller, niche suppliers.  Since joining AxiCom in 2009 she has taken responsibility for running pan-European and global accounts including Red Hat, Fujitsu, ABBYY and the ITU (a UN organisation).

When not at AxiCom, Sally enjoys both mountain and sea as a keen skier and yachtswoman.

Experience in PR: 14 years

Expertise in technology industry: 13 years

Specialisations: Corporate communications, enterprise and consumer technology

Client experience: BMC, Citrix, Dell, Fujitsu, Logitech, McAfee, Salesforce.com, Samsung, VMware, Qualcomm

Professional qualifications: Masters degree media and communications from University of Stockholm

On completing her studies Catarina aspired to become a professional art critic, however fate had other plans. Following a one year detour into the art world, she was lured into technology PR where she happily stayed, watching and learning as the industry dramatically matured.

Throughout her years in the business, Catarina has worked as a communication consultant helping companies to position themselves, finesse their communication and gain market momentum. She has also been responsible for setting up and running two tech PR consultancies in the Nordics.Polish by birth, Catarina moved to Sweden at nine years of age. Her love of Eastern European cuisine has remained with her and she would choose herring and a Żubrówka shot over foie gras and champagne any day of the week.

Experience in PR: 11 years

Expertise in technology industry: 11 years

Specialisations: Enterprise technology, consumer tech, open source,

Client experience: Dell, Verizon Business, Red Hat, BT, VMware, Sagem Wireless, ABBYY, Sling Media, Blurb

Professional qualifications: Former freelance journalist; PhD in philosophy, history, German

Marcus joined AxiCom in 2000 as an account executive on the back of a career as a freelance journalist. He progressed to Associate Director at AxiCom Germany and in November 2007 moved to Amsterdam as regional manager Benelux.

He has worked across a broad range of clients, mainly in the business computing, security, telecommunications and consumer tech sectors and has helped win and grow many key AxiCom accounts including Dell, ABBYY, Check Point, DoubleClick, iPass, Red Hat, and VMware.

Marcus describes his move to the Netherlands as one of the best decisions of his life and he now speaks Dutch with a Westfalian accent!

Experience in PR: 13 years

Expertise in technology industry: 12 years

Specialisations: Enterprise IT, telecoms, new media

Client experience: Citrix, VMware, Red Hat, Alcatel-Lucent, Verizon Business, Symbian, ZTE, DoubleClick, Zanox, Real, SlingMedia

Professional qualifications: Marketing degree

On completion of his degree in business and communications, François started his career as a PR officer for the French Army in the South Pacific. He returned to France and took on a role at AxiCom in 1998, where he rose steadily through the ranks to become country manager in 2002.   

François’ specialism is in defining local and international strategies and this has seen him drive the PR launch of many French start-ups.

Aged 11 Francois won the French National Championships for BMX Freestyle.  A man of serial passions he then moved onto motocross, tennis, wind surfing and now, with middle age beckoning, he is currently consumed by all things golfing.

Experience in PR: 15 years

Expertise in technology industry: 15 years

Specialisations: Networking, enterprise software, storage, industrial automation software, security, consumer tech

Client experience: VMware, Dell, EMC, Check Point Software, RSA, ANSYS, Red Hat, CommVault, ZTE, ADT

Chiara Possenti joined AxiCom in January 2000 as country manager for Italy. Prior to this, she was an account manager at Business Press, an Italian PR agency that specialised in technology, and was on the Italian editorial team for Business Week.

Chiara has a degree in political sciences with economics, has studied in a number of different European cities and speaks five languages.

However, her crowning achievement is her much acclaimed performance in Tom Stoppard’s 30-minute version of Hamlet, she is still told that she should have become a cabaret artist!

Experience in PR: 15 years

Expertise in technology industry: 6years

Specialisations: B2B and B2C,Telcos, Gaming industry, Internet/Digital, Security, Real State, Banking and Insurance, Industrial sector, Logistics, Travel, Leisure and Entertainment, Health and medical, food and beverages.

Client Experience:Insight, VMWare,Nominalia, Brightcove, Red Hat, Blue Coat, Acronis, ESET, DELL, Videoplaza, Vizioncore, Toshiba Electronica de Consumo, Alcatel Mobile Phones, NAVIGON,Meta4, TelefonicaB2B /  Commerce One

Monica has a Degree in Communications (UCM Madrid), a Postgraduate degree in Financial Communications and a Master of Arts in Marketing. Monica has worked for leading international PR consultancies and has experience in both corporate and product PR for clients across a number of different sectors, previous clients have included, Warner Bros Entertainment, Diageo and Visa International. Monica took over the running of AxiCom Spain in 2009.

Monica is an expert in  social media and crisis communications and regularly speaks at institutions including Unidad Editorial and Escuela Europea de Negocios. She is a member of the "Comisión de Comunicación" at ANEI (Asociacion Española de Empresas de Internet).

She is the daughter of a mountain climber and learned to ski before she could walk.  She then spent her teenage years dressed entirely in black listening to Techno music.