Founder / CEO / Managing Director

Andy Evans has worked in the media industry since 1986. His experience spans traditional offline business and consumer press, radio and television. Now focused on online publishing, audio and video. Andy began working online in 1997, launched Net Communities in 1999, survived the internet boom and is the controlling share holder in the business

When Paul Hales started writing about IT, DOS was state of the art, Microsoft had competition, a laptop was called a luggable and Amstrad was yet to source a dodgy hard disk. "In those days," he says, "we used to write what were called magazines, which were engineered using an old-fangled technology called paper. Much of our output could wait up to a month to appear. Now we deal in pixels and stories are past their sell-by date after about an hour and a half. And I thought we were supposed to slow as we age!"

Stewart had over 20 years of experience in the print publishing industry working at the bleeding edge of technology before deciding that this new-fangled interweb thingummybob was the way forward for a jaded middle-aged hack who likes to spend more time with his dogs than is probably healthy. He stole a Sinclair ZX81 from a rich friend who couldn't be bothered to work out how to use it in the early eighties and soon moved on the the Spectrum, the Commodore 64, the Amiga and the Atari ST. In the mid eighties he saw a Mac Classic in a Travel Agency in Rickmansworth and immediately fell in love. He has never been the same since.

Ben Hardwidge has been a tech scribe for over ten years. His previous jobs include online editor of PC enthusiasts’ mag Custom PC, and reviews editor of PC Pro magazine. As well as this, Ben has written for a number of tech websites, including Bit-Tech, The Inquirer and Tech Radar.

Ben’s been fiddling around with PCs since the 8086 days, and he’s accumulated a large amount of knowledge about PC hardware and gaming over the years, most of which is genuinely useful, but some of which is more than probably a waste of brain cells. Ben currently lives in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex, and when he’s not doing weird geeky things with PCs, he can often be found listening to heavy metal, playing Nintendo games, painting Space Marines and messing about with old synthesizers.

Benny Har-Even has been working as a technology journalist for over 10 years, which could explain why he now has grey hair. He started his career on magazines such as PC Pro and Computer Buyer, and formerly was Deputy Editor of TrustedReviews and Technology Editor on IT PRO. His enthusiasm for gadgets and shiny kit knows no bounds, with a particular penchant for smartphones and home entertainment technology, such as TVs. He is married with two small children, and wishes they would stop playing with his iPhone when he’s not looking.

Mark Ballard is a peasant, or freelance journalist as they are otherwise known. This essentially means he doesn't earn enough money to pay for health, education and housing. This is in part because journalists can't charge as much money as plumbers or masseurs or psychoanalysts. And that's because people don't buy their journalism direct. Their money goes to publishers. And publishers are essentially a management cabal that pays itself salaries so vulgar that there's only enough money left to pay appeasement wages to senior editorial staff, leaving very little for actual journalism. Bah humbug. [Mark was paid too much for his article - Senior Ed.]

Non Executive Chairman

I have worked in the IT industry since 1976 and was honoured to work with Apple Computer in the UK from 1979 when the PC industry was in its infancy. I established Taxan (Europe) Ltd in 1985 and over next 18 years managed a business which sold 5 million monitors and graphics adaptors. My personal goal was to own and manage my own business and this was realised when I co-founded TrustedReviews.com in 2003 followed by the acquisition of bit-tech.net in 2005. The sale of both companies (TrustedReviews.com in 2007 to Time Warner/IPC Media and bit-tech.net in 2008 to Dennis Publishing) completed my ultimate goal. Now I'm really excited to be working with Net Communities part time as Non-Executive Chairman.

Kevin Murphy spent the best part of the last decade immersed in the tech culture of Silicon Valley, covering the dot-com crash, the rise of “Web 2.0” and everything in between. He returned to his home in the UK only after his pasty craving became intolerable and he got tired of spelling “organise” with a Z. He now finds himself jonesing for a good veggie burrito

Simon has run more benchmarks than than Dell Corporation. What hasn't passed through his hands over the decades wasn't worth fiddling with. He has recently shifted his cluttered burrow upmarket from Soho to Covent Garden, where one can be more elegantly fed.

Kelvyn hasn't always been a tech journo - for many years he preferred blowing holes in the ground looking for oil and gas. But since he turned away from such childish pursuits, he's worked for PC Magazine and was most recently the editor of Personal Computer World.

James reckons he's had his eyes glued to a computer screen since some time in the late ’90s. Half-geek, half-Luddite, all nerd, he mixes his enthusiasm for all things IT with a healthy disdain for razor blades and a smattering of eco-angst… although another bout of lumbago might just tempt him to trade his wind-up gramophone for an iPod after all.