About us
The Net Languages story
Our company
Net Languages was set up at the beginning of 1998 by a team of people who had previously been working together at International House Barcelona, including Jonathan Dykes, Chief Executive; Scott Thornbury, Contents Director; and Gavin Dudeney, Technical Director.
Jonathan managed to persuade a number of other people from the International House World Organisation to invest in the new company and that's how it all started.
Our first courses were launched in May 1999.
The next major milestone in Net Languages' history was the acquisition of a majority shareholding in the company by Spanish publishers Grupo Santillana de Ediciones.
As part of Grupo Prisa, Spain's largest media group, Santillana had the resources to help Net Languages continue to develop new courses and compete on a global scale.
In May 2003, Jonathan organised a management buyout of Santillana's shareholding, which meant that Net Languages became an independent company once again.
Over the years Net Languages has developed a very wide range of English language courses which cater for students of all ages and levels of ability. We also have a number of more specialised courses, including our successful IELTS preparation courses.
Net Languages has also developed a range of Spanish language courses which mirror the English courses in terms of their design and quality.
We have also developed a number of business models for different types of clients: individual students, corporate clients, educational institutions of all kinds, government departments and more. For details, please visit the different sections of our website.
Net Languages' mission
Net Languages' mission is to create and license high-quality online English and Spanish language courses and accompany them with effective pedagogical, administrative and technical support services.Founders
Jonathan Dykes
Jonathan Dykes graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in philosophy and a special interest in the philosophy of education. He spent the first few years of his professional life teaching English in a number of different countries before leaping into language school management and entrepreneurship. Jonathan was CEO of the IHLS Group until 2018.
Jonathan’s blog about the language teaching business can be found here: https://jonathandykesblog.wordpress.com
Scott Thornbury
Scott Thornbury comes from New Zealand and has lived in Barcelona for the last 25 years. He has an MA (TEFL) from the University of Reading and over 30 years' experience teaching English and training English teachers. He is currently Associate Professor of English Language Studies at the New School, New York.
Scott is a prize-winning author whose writing credits include:
- Over to Us!, a task-based course for Spanish secondary schools
- About Language: Tasks for Teachers of English (Cambridge University Press)
- How to Teach Grammar (Pearson)
- How to Teach Vocabulary (Pearson)
- Uncovering Grammar (Macmillan)
- Natural Grammar (Oxford University Press)
- Beyond the Sentence (Macmillan)
- How to Teach Speaking (Pearson)
- An A-Z of ELT (Macmillan)
Gavin Dudeney
Gavin was born in Devon and spent most of his childhood in Cornwall. He took a degree in Spanish and French at the University of Birmingham and worked initially in the field of graphic design and advertising before training in the field of ELT. He has worked as a teacher and teacher trainer around the world, primarily for the International House group of schools and the British Council. He worked as head of the New Technologies Department in International House Barcelona and as Lead Developer for Net Languages, directing the activities of the computer team. A regular contributor to the IATEFL Computer SIG group and conference plenary speaker, his writing credits include The Internet and the Language Classroom (Cambridge University Press, 2000/2007) and How to Teach English with Technology (Longman, 2007, with Nicky Hockly). In 2003 he set up The Consultants-E, an online training and development consultancy and has worked as the company's Director of Technology since then.
Key personnel
Fiona Thomas
Chief Operating Officer
Fiona was born and brought up in Worcestershire, England. She went to Warwick University then got her first TEFL qualification and moved to Spain. Since then she has worked as an English teacher, Director of Studies and Coordinator of a University of Cambridge Upper Main Suite Exam Centre. She got her Diploma in TEFLA (International House Barcelona) in 1993 and the Advanced Diploma in Language Teaching Management (ESADE Barcelona) in 2000. She started working at Net Languages as the Director of Education and is now the Chief Operating Officer.
She has co-written the book: Managing Education in the Digital Age: Choosing, setting up, and running successful online courses.
Peter Loveday
Head of EFL Materials Development
Peter was born and grew up in Queensland, Australia. He took a degree in Design Studies at the University of Queensland and worked in Australia, Britain and Spain. Subsequently, he settled in Barcelona where he took the University of Cambridge Diploma in English Language Teaching and worked as a teacher and teacher trainer at International House Barcelona, as well as a teacher and coordinator of the Servei Extern d’Idiomes, Escola d’Idiomes Moderns, at the Universitat de Barcelona. In 1998 he began working as a materials writer at Net Languages, and in 2004 took over from Scott Thornbury to become Head of EFL Materials Development.
Isabel Ginés
Head of Materials Development for Spanish as a Foreign Language
Isabel was born in Barcelona. She graduated in Philosophy and Education at Barcelona University in 1992, and, a year later got her certificate in teacher training for teachers of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) at International House Barcelona. Since then, she has worked as an ELE teacher in Spain and in Germany. In 1998 she started working in the Teacher Training Department of International House Barcelona, and a year later she began to write materials for Net Languages' online Spanish course. She currently combines teaching and teacher training with creating online material and tutoring for Net Languages, along with being head of the Net Languages Spanish courses.
Javier Teodoro
Lead Web Developer
Javier joined Net Languages in 2021 as Lead Web Developer. His expertise covers backend architecture, database management, and frontend technologies. Javier is responsible for the technical development process, from initial concept to deployment, ensuring high technical standards and performance. He is constantly updating his skills in line with the latest technological advances. As Lead Developer, he leads the technical team to deliver high quality digital tools and learning products.
Aurora del Fresno
Office Manager
Aurora was born in Barcelona. She did a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She is passionate about learning languages. She speaks Catalan, Spanish, English and is currently learning Korean. She joined the company in 2019 to work in customer service. She provides students and partners with information about the courses and platform, and sorts out any problems they might be having. She is responsible for invoicing and helping with the accounts. Her friendly disposition and know-how has made her a very highly valued member of the team.
