About us
Virya Software is part of Virya Technologies, who provide ethical technology services to businesses, charities and not for profit organisations.
Run as a Buddhist right livelihood organisation, we exist to be able to offer services to those who would not normally be able to afford them, by using the profit we make from our commercial work to fund 'dana' - or generosity - projects.
Virya Software is where we provide the software which we have produced to the public. We're currently updating the site to include more information about our team, watch this space!
Ruth Cheesley - The boss woman!
Ruth is Director of Virya Technologies and Virya Software, and manages the day to day running of both organisations. She oversees the team of developers and manages the emails and forum.
She is keen to see Virya Software develop and is always on the lookout for software which needs customising or creating, and Joomla! extensions which need updating or adapting (or indeed writing from scratch) - we're always up for a challenge!
Ruth is the driving force behind the charitable activities that Virya Technologies support and is a practicing Buddhist with the Triratna Buddhist Community and part of the Young People's Sangha.
Ruth lives with her partner John in Ipswich, Suffolk (UK) and also runs the local Joomla! User Group Suffolk, which meets monthly in Ipswich.
Ben Tasker & Evgeny Bartashevich - The code monkeys!
Ben Tasker is based in Ipswich, Suffolk (UK) and has been part of Virya Technologies since the early days, lending his expertise in IT Security to his role as IT Manager & Linux Specialist. Ben is also a pretty awesome coder, and has been responsible for several of our projects to date.
Ben has a specific interest in vulnerability testing and security which allows him to apply this knowledge when we are asked to investigate websites which have been hacked.
Evgeny is a relatively new addition to our team, working remotely from Saint Peterbourgh in Russia. Evgeny's expertise lies in converting extensions from old versions of Joomla! to run with newer versions, and with creating extensions from scratch. The majority of his work at Virya Software has involved rewriting of extensions for 1.7.x and bug-fixing our extensions.
Chris Smith - The Apprentice!
Chris started working with Virya Technologies in October 2011 as an apprentice and hasn't get ventured over to Virya Software, however he has a keen interest in coding and it learning about the Joomla! Framework, so we expect him to join our development team in the future - a code monkey in development one might say! :)
