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About BirdGuides Ltd

BirdGuides staff on Holy Island, March 2009

BirdGuides Limited is a British company that produces videos, books and multimedia computer software for birdwatchers. Over the years we have built up what is most probably the world's most comprehensive library of quality footage of European and American birds. This is made available via our DVD videos, CD- and DVD-ROMs.

The company also offers bird news services via the web, email and mobile phones, and has recently launched audio and video products for mp3 players and iPods.

Directors

Max Whitby

John Cromie

Max Whitby is co-founder of BirdGuides. He is based in London at the offices of RGB Research where much of BirdGuides' interactive and video production takes place. Max has filmed many of the species in our library. By background he is a BBC-trained producer and has been responsible for numerous editions of Horizon and Tomorrow's World and has 2 BAFTA awards (and 4 nominations) to his credit. He has set up several other successful companies. Currently Max is studying for a PhD at Imperial College in the field of nanofluidics.

As Technical Director at BirdGuides, John Cromie is responsible for overall technical direction at BirdGuides and for the software which powers our DVD-ROM products and web presence.

A software engineer and consultant, John has extensive experience in the development of interactive products. With his company, Skylark Associates, John continues to enhance our DVD-ROM products, and to develop new and innovative applications for our website.

Staff

Fiona Barclay	Dave Dunford

Fiona does the day-to-day running of BirdGuides from our London offices. She is responsible for marketing, business to business ventures, the webzine, looking after the news team and generally making sure everything is working smoothly. Fiona comes from a commercial science background, and has a PhD in Chemistry. In between times she also looks after RGB Research and even occasionally makes it out and about with the camera. She is always delighted to hear new ideas for BirdGuides products and services. Fiona likes to keep up-to-date with new technologies. You can follow what she's up to at http://twitter.com/birdguides	Dave joined BirdGuides in June 2000. His main role at BirdGuides is to look after this website. Before moving north, Dave was Chairman of the Oxford Ornithological Society, also designing their website and helping with the local annual report. As well as maintaining the website, Dave is responsible for the technical aspects of our bird news services; and as a former copy-editor he also helps out checking articles for the webzine and making sure our communications aren't too littered with mistakes.
Andy Hirst	Pete Ellison

Andy rejoined BirdGuides in 2005 as Office Manager. He's responsible for the BirdGuides Office, ensuring the orders and enquiries are processed efficiently, occasionally sneaking out to film for our archive using our new High Definition camera. He first joined BirdGuides in 1994 as Office Manager and latterly Production Manager. Andy is the person you speak to when you call the office. Andy runs Gone Birding, leading tours plus wildlife video services in his spare time, as well as being Group Recorder and Producer for SK58 Birders. He spends most of his time birding in SK58, a 10km square near Sheffield.	Pete started working in Technical Support for BirdGuides in 2003. He was a Radio Electronics Officer in the Merchant Navy for 14 years, then Technical Support Engineer for Reuters on their PC and Sun Unix networks for 16 years. His hobby is sailing.