Meet the FriendsAbroad.com team

Simon Murdoch is founder and CEO of FriendsAbroad.com. Simon's CV is impressive - he was VP Europe of Amazon.com - he founded his own Internet bookselling company Bookpages which he sold to Amazon.com and then launched Amazon.co.uk in 1998. He was also a founder of Episode 1 Partners, an early stage technology investment company and he has invested in early stage Internet businesses such as Betfair (betting exchange), LoveFilm (DVD rental) and Shazam Entertainment (music recognition).

Since April 2006, Simon has been working full time here and he just wants to help millions of people improve their language skills, oh and his own and his four children's.

Gwenaelle studied International Business at Bristol University, where she graduated in 2004. After a brief job in sales in London, Gwen (as we all know her) joined FriendsAbroad.com to use her language skills. Gwen is French, speaks fluent English and is learning German, Spanish and Russian. All of which are invaluable in her role in Marketing and Product Development.

In her free time, Gwen greatly enjoys equestrian sports, skiing, sailing and outdoor rallying. She loves travelling and meeting people from different cultures.

Rikki is an investor and director in the company. In spite of that he is quite approachable though usually he encourages us to spend less and start making some money instead. He surprised his wife last year with a birthday present – his present to her: he took Italian lessons and declared his love in Italian over a romantic dinner!

Susan joined FriendsAbroad.com in 2005 from Sony UK Ltd where she was a Customer Service Manager. Her attention to detail is legendary. She can spot a spelling mistake from nine yards, though only in English at the moment.

Andrew is our first Customer Service Agent and our Spanish translator. He is the first point of contact for all emails to FriendsAbroad.com. Andrew is Spanish but he is never lost in translation apart from when it comes to British humour, even after having lived in the UK for three years.

Andrew is also studying for a law degree at Surrey University.

Jonathan has had many jobs in his life but in recent years has found his passion is making websites look good. At FriendsAbroad.com he is responsible for front end programming. When he isn't working late through the night on our html he is working late through the night doing up his house on the south coast of England.

Ben spends his days applying his experience in web usability and accessibility to our web pages, and the rest of his time with his growing family, his mountainboard, and his swing/punk band. He says his skills in French and German have been fading away steadily since secondary school, but he can talk to computers of all nationalities.

Shaun has continuously worked in IT support since leaving college and is responsible for maintaining all our IT systems and for writing SQL reports. In his spare time, Shaun is a keen Manchester United fan and says he is enjoying planning his wedding for July 2007.