Julian Tanner is the CEO and founder of AxiCom. With 18 years' experience in technology communications, Julian has covered almost all areas of the industry, from component electronics to systems software, and from video games to mainframe computers.

Julian started his career with a high tech specialist agency in 1985, moving on to become a director of an agency where he built the high-tech practice and opened its Paris office. In 1993, he moved to Silicon Valley to work as a director of one of the largest high tech agencies in the US.

After his return to the UK in December 1994 Julian founded AxiCom to provide a strategic and pan-European communication service to mirror those available in the US. Since 1995, Julian has built AxiCom from a two-person agency to a major European agency network that owns offices in seven countries and has affiliates covering all important markets across EMEA.

Helen helped found AxiCom with Julian in 1994, having previously worked in the IT industry for nine years.

Starting her career as a journalist with the UK technology press, Helen developed a lasting taste for the IT industry and never looked back. After five years reporting on the IT market and the companies that shape it, Helen made the move to PR in 1991 as an account manager for a high-tech specialist managing work for companies including Motorola, Avalon, PeopleSoft, Cheyenne and Taligent.

Helen has been instrumental in growing the AxiCom UK and European business and currently leads the Clean Tech practice, and supervises a number of major accounts in the Enterprise Computing and Consumer Tech sectors.

Martina Brembeck is an AxiCom principal and country manager of AxiCom Germany which she founded in May 1997 as the first AxiCom office outside the UK. Martina has over 12 years' experience in the high-tech industry. She worked as a journalist with BILD magazine before heading up the technology practice in a Munich PR agency with responsibility for clients such as Motorola, Hilti, SMC and Viewlogic.

She worked with AxiCom from April 1995 when she was general manager of Westside Communications, and left to set up AxiCom GmbH two years later. Martina has extensive contacts with the German press and comprehensive knowledge of communications in the German hi-tech market.

Lyle Closs is managing director at AxiCom, with network-wide responsibility for finance, HR, property and legal. He also works with some clients and manages major client projects.

Lyle has over 20 years' experience in technology PR and marketing. He started out as a business press journalist, then worked in PR and marketing roles, in agencies and in-house, across the full spectrum of technology business.

Lyle came to the UK with his family in 1991 and was PR Manager for The Sage Group before moving to work on the IBM account with a London agency. He then moved to Ogilvy PR where he led the European technology practice for four years, his primary client being IBM's EMEA agency network, and was managing director of Ogilvy PR UK for three years.

Lyle spent a year as marketing director of internet telephony provider Callserve before joining AxiCom in February 2001.

Sabine Mannhardt is Finance Director at AxiCom Cohn & Wolfe, with network-wide responsibility for financial management and reporting. Sabine has nearly 20 years’ experience in finance, taxation and economics. She started as assistant to a German auditor, then worked as a controller for an OEM supplier for Alcatel. After that, she became Finance Director at Gemini Consulting GmbH, a daughter company to Cap Gemini, where she was responsible for Finance and HR. She then moved to CSC Index GmbH, the strategic consulting company of CSC and became European Financial Controller. She joined AxiCom Germany as Finance Director in April 1997 and took over the role of Financial Director, Europe in 2002.

François Gobillot joined AxiCom France in 1999 to handle on-going PR work for major players of the enterprise computing area, such as Citrix and Boundless. He was previously managing public relations for the French Army in the South Pacific, his first taste of managing press events and crisis communication in an institutional international environment.

François has extensive media press relations experience from pure press liaison and event logistics to strategic planning. He has a strong network of industry contacts and is well known within the French IT communications sector. He has worked successfully with a wide range of clients in the telecoms, digital media and enterprise computing sectors including Metromedia Fiber Networks, Alcatel, Esmertec, DoubleClick, Alias, Red Hat and JBoss.

François manages both France-only and multi-country clients for on-going programmes and projects. He has a degree in business and communications from the European Business School, Paris.

Chiara Possenti joined AxiCom in January 2000. Prior to joining AxiCom, Chiara worked at another Italian technology specialist PR agency where she contributed to the development and growth of the company, defining positioning and strategy for clients such as Digital Equipment, Allied Telesyn, OKI Systems, 3Com Corporation, Bay Networks and Apple.

Before that, Chiara worked in the Italian office of Business Week, on both the advertising and editorial sides oif the business, and was the principal contact with the US head office.

Chiara has a degree in Political Sciences with a specialisation in economics and is multilingual as she spent most of her school years living in different European countries.

Marcus joined AxiCom as an account executive in 2000, working on a wide range of clients, mainly in the business computing, security and telecommunications sector. Before joining Axicom he worked as a freelance journalist.

Marcus helped to win and grow a significant number of clients including ABBYY, Check Point, iPass, Red Hat and VMware and progressed rapidly. He handled project management and consultancy for local as well as international clients and projects.

Until October 2007 Marcus was an Associate Director at AxiCom Germany. Since November 2007 he has headed up AxiCom's Benelux team based in Amsterdam. Marcus holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy, History and German.

Catarina Wigén is country manager for the Nordic region including Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. She has more than ten years of experience in the IT PR industry and has been responsible for setting up and running two IT consultancy firms in the Nordics.

Catarina joined AxiCom in 2007 after five years at a technology specialist agency where she worked on the corporate communications side with international and local business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients such as Business Software Alliance (BSA), Citrix, Logitech, Quantum and Imation. Catarina has a masters degree in media and communications from the University of Stockholm.

Monica joined AxiCom in April 2009, she has more than 14 years of experience in the Public Relations industry.

Monica came to AxiCom from Cohn & Wolfe where she has extensive experience in PR, covering technology but also consumer and corporate PR at various times.

Monica has a great record of working across a wide range of sectors in major Madrid agencies, including a long stint with Cohn & Wolfe Spain. Her past clients have included names such as Dell, Alcatel, Toshiba and Telefonica, as well as healthcare clients including Astra Zeneca and Lilly.