The Global Digital Excellence Awards have been judged by digital marketing industry leaders and experts.
Current Judges
Previous Judges include:
Judges
Lukas Adamec | Performance Marketing Manager | DACH at Zendesk
Lukas Adamec has been working within Paid Digital for 11+ years, during which he transitioned from an employee to a freelancer & CEO of Abadam Marketing. In the last 5 years Lukas has focused on Consultancy - working with established agencies to deliver client growth. His focus is particularly on international paid opportunities, from Google to Yandex, from Naver to Baidu, from Yahoo JP to Seznam. Lukas is a firm believer in knowledge sharing and enjoys discussing experiences with established online marketers as well as providing training to new colleagues. During his time off, Lukas recharges his energy by being disconnected from online influences and instead spends his time on wildlife photography.
Roman Adamita | SEO Manager | BoostRoas | @AdamitaRoman
As Roman Adamita, I’m an SEO doer and highly experienced on the technical side, passionate in digital marketing with over 7 years of experience. I leading an SEO team at a remote-based award-winning agency (BoostROAS) for almost 2 years by full-time. I have experience in industries like; B2B, B2C, Retail, Online Grocery Shopping, Gaming, Travel and I worked with different brands from the United States, Germany, Turkey, and Romania. I’m also the proud winner at the MENA Search Awards 2019 of the Young Search Professional of the Year award.
Azeem Ahmad | Digital Marketing Manager | Staffordshire University | @AzeemDigital
Azeem is currently the Digital Marketing Manager at Staffordshire University. He has spent several years working in the industry, beginning in a paid search focused role before moving into a multi channel specialism. He is experienced in various aspects of online marketing activity, including PPC, Social Media, Display, Programmatic, App Marketing and SEO. He has previously spoken at conferences in the UK including MeasureFest, and BrightonSEO, and also on podcasts and webinars too.
Dan Barker | EBusiness Consultant | Independent Consultant EBusiness Consultant
Dan has worked in ecommerce for around 20 years. He has worked within companies in ecommerce functions, up to CMO level, has worked on projects for more than 100 ecommerce businesses as a consultant, and has co-owned a couple of ecommerce businesses with millions of visitors and hundreds of millions of turnover between them over the years. He enjoys the opportunity that ecommerce has brought and can bring to people all over the world.
Liam Bateman | CEO | Silverchip
CTO And software developer, Liam has over 15years experience in the digital industry, working with some of the UK's leading companies and brands. In 2010, with his friend and business partner, he co-founded Silverchip, an award-winning digital agency in the heart of Manchester, boasting an impressive client list and being renowned for its bespoke software development. Liam is extremely passionate about the importance of developing a ‘real-world curriculum’ within schools and colleges, working alongside students and young people to provide opportunities and routes into the sector.
Amilcar Batista | Global Director | Worldline Global
Amilcar is an entrepreneur and a business technology leader with more than 20 years of experience in various industries (telecom, media, aviation industries, and fintech), at various positions including CEO, business consultant, strategy director and CTO. He worked in various countries within multicultural teams (France, USA, Italy, Germany, Morocco, Finland, Brazil, Poland, India). His beliefs: Making the hard choices, articulating a clear vision and executing a plan are the recipe to succeed.
Jake Bohall | Co-founder and head of SEO | Hive Digital | @jakebohall
Jake Bohall is the co-founder and head of SEO at Hive Digital, a search agency dedicated to marketing for a better world. Prior to diving into the search marketing industry in 2007, Jake had experience in founding several startups ranging from an insurance claims management company to a social network for wine enthusiasts. Jake's primary focus is leading technical SEO for his team and helping clients develop strategies and processes for search success. Jake is a frequent speaker at a number of popular industry conferences, is an instructor for Fortis College's SEO course, and serves as a board member for an educational non-profit. Jake’s experience in business and strategy development has made him adept at identifying practical online marketing strategies to fit a company’s growth objectives and available resources. When he is not distracted by the fascinating world of marketing, Jake spends his time in North Carolina with his wife and 3 children.
Carlotta Bonafini | SEO PRODUCT MANAGER | EDREAMS ODIGEO
Carlotta is the global SEO product manager at Edreams Odigeo, where she is overseeing all the landing pages and the organic customers acquisition. She started her professional career in the marketing field working for Expedia in the search department. She directed various regional projects before moving into a global position in Vodafone, where her initiatives created outstanding results whilst pioneering new processes. She supervised both creative campaigns and technical projects, and launched many impactful ideas. Carlotta graduated from London Metropolitan University and Milan Catholic University. Passionate about high-tech, she is working on improving her coding skills and is always eager to expand her technical knowledge.
Rafael Brandao | HEAD OF EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND USER STUDIES | Telecine
Experience Design Manager passionate about Arts and Technology. For more than 15 years I’ve been working in several Advertising Agencies and Design Offices as an Interactive Art Director and UI/UX Strategist. Today, I’m the Head of Experience Design and User Studies at Telecine, a joint venture between Grupo Globo and the major Hollywood Studios. In 2012 I also concluded my Master’s degree in Design at ESDI/UERJ (Brazil) and IADE Creative University (Portugal). Alongside my current role at Telecine I’m an UX Design professor at Miami Ad School Brasil, the best creative school worldwide (Cannes 2019), a Mentor at Designed.org and AbeLLha and Vice President of the UX Committee of IAB – Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Dave Cain | Senior Digital Marketing Manager | Arriva Group
Dave started his digital journey back in 2002 originally as a web designer/developer and very quickly moved into the online marketing sector as an SEO and PPC specialist. Over the past 17+ years, he has operated in a freelance, agency and client side capacity working with some of the most respected brands across the UK, Europe and Asia. Today, Dave would classify himself as a t-shaped data driven digital professional with a wealth of experience and knowledge across many verticals and technologies. In his own words “if the internet was switched off tomorrow I’d be out of work, it’s all I know and love”.
Steve Clark | Head of Digital Growth | Tangent
Steve has several years' experience planning and executing cross-channel digital campaigns for a variety of international clients, including DHL, TikTok, Lenovo and Slack. Starting his career copywriting on a creative team, Steve's covered almost all aspects of digital marketing, from SEO and CRO to paid media and influencers, picking up skills in stats, analytics, data science and web development along the way.
Justin Clark | Founder - Social Media Consultancy | Just Social
Justin is a social media and digital crisis communications specialist with more than 10 years’ experience leading social media, PR and digital communications in Government and the public sector, both in the UK and overseas. Justin runs social media consulting firm, JustSocial, providing strategic guidance and support to some of the world’s biggest brands. A regular keynote speaker at major social media conferences across the UK and Europe, Justin is the Chairperson for the UK’s largest public sector social media and crisis communications conference series, and judges some of the world’s biggest industry awards. Justin also runs ‘SocialNorth’, a social media industry event connecting the digital talent across the North of England and works as a Non-Executive Director and Social Media Director for multiple UK agencies.
Victoria Coppin | Social & Digital Director | Popcorn PR
I’ve been the Social & Digital Director at Popcorn PR for the last 2.5 years delivering social & digital strategy and campaigns as part of wider integrated comms including PR, influencer & experiential activity. I work with a huge breadth of clients mostly FMCG spanning lifestyle, beauty & grooming and food. Prior to my current role, I spent 5 years at other agencies ensuring we had a strong social & digital voice with our clients. My background was working in a very busy government agency press office, just a the very dawn of social media; I saw there was a huge opportunity for us to be using social media as part of our whole comms across consumer, B2B and trade and drove this forward within the organisation. I’ve also project managed huge website builds and launched apps along the way, but social and influencer marketing, along with search, are my greatest loves and the ones that slot so neatly into the sort of comms agency we are.
Arianne Donoghue
A veteran of 14 years’ experience in the industry, Arianne has worked for some of the UK best-known agencies and most-loved brands. She's passionate about helping teams and businesses do the best work they can, through driving strategy, integration and inclusion. Arianne now runs her own small consultancy where she helps agencies and brands maximise their potential.
Michael Durey | Head of Digital & CRM | Samsung
Michael joined Samsung in 2018 and since then has helped to deliver triple digit Ecommerce growth through Samsung’s owned eStore, EPP and Student websites. Aligning Digital Marketing strategies across Search (Paid and Organic), Affiliates, CRM, Paid Social, Programmatic Display and Online Video has allowed Samsung to maximise in-market traffic through to Samsung.com and ultimately has led to the most successful flagship launches and Black Friday sales periods the company has ever had.
DAVID EDMUNDSON-BIRD | PRINCIPAL LECTURER IN DIGITAL MARKETING & ENTERPRISE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: DIGITAL INNOVATION | Manchester Metropolitan University
David is Principal Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he leads a team of specialist digital marketing academics and runs a number of digital communications programmes. He is co-author of 7th edition of Digital Business & E-commerce Management with Dave Chaffey and Tanya Hemphill. David is Chair of Global Judging Standards for Don’t Panic. His role is to ensure objectivity, transparency and consistency across the judging panels for all Don’t Panic assets, and to provide a quality assurance process in the judging process. He set up Manchester Met’s first part-time MSc in Digital Marketing in 2007, their first full-time MSc Digital Marketing Communications in 2016 and Manchester Met’s Global E-Learning MSc in Digital Marketing. David founded Manchester Met’s Agency Life programme in 2012 to enable students to experience live work skills in the workplace very early in their course. He has enjoyed several spells in academia as well as senior management roles in the digital sector, helped to set up Manchester’s second web design agency back in 1995, He sits on the Board FutureEverything and is a trustee of The Education Trust.
Daniel Eischen | Co-Founder | Concept Factory, Tribe Global
Daniel Eischen is co-founder and Managing Partner of some of the leading communication agencies in Luxembourg. For over 27 years, he has been advising clients in the areas of digital, employer and sustainable marketing and branding. Daniel is founding member of the international agency network Tribe Global and has been its first Chairman. He is Chair of the Luxembourg self-regulation organisation (SRO) Conseil de la Publicité and Chair of The British Chamber of Commerce for Luxembourg.
Pierre Far | DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT & FOUNDER | DELIBERATE DIGITAL LIMITED | @delibdigital
Pierre is a digital product management consultant, with a specialty in SEO. Prior to founding Deliberate Digital and Blockmetry, Pierre held several roles at Google and the technology sector in the UK, including product management, community management, innovation consulting, and online marketing. He’s a regular speaker, author, and advisor about technology topics, and has a Ph.D. in microbial genetics from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Balazs Gandera | Founder and CEO | Intren
Balazs is INTREN’s founder and CEO. He considers himself a business focused geek. From ads to analytics, from funnels to blockchains, he works every day to figure out how INTREN can be better at delivering business results to the clients. He is a regional Google trainer, a Google Sales Masterclass trainer and a regular speaker on digital marketing topics. INTREN is one of the largest independent performance agencies, headquartered in Budapest.
Simon Heseltine | VP OF AUDIENCE GROWTH | TRADER INTERACTIVE | @SimonHeseltine
Simon Heseltine is the VP of Audience Growth at Trader Interactive in Norfolk, VA. His team is responsible for all traffic channels for industry leading sites such as Cycle Trader, RV Trader, Equipment Trader and Commercial Truck Trader. Simon has led US Search Award winning teams at ForRent (2017) and AOL (2014), also working in-house at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and for several years on the agency side. Simon taught digital marketing for 5 years at Georgetown University, and was on the board of SEMPO for 4 years, 2 as VP of Education. Simon is a frequent speaker / trainer / moderator at conferences around the world on a variety of online marketing topics. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of Humberside, and a Masters in IT from Virginia Tech.
Jaime Hill | Head of eCommerce | Oak Furniture Land
Jaime has over two decades of experience as a Marketing & Ecommerce professional with a successful track record leading teams and developing strategy to transform organisations’ digital capability and channels to market. She has had success in roles at brands including Avis, Barclays, Dairy Crest and Shell, and across a wide range of B2B and B2C vertical markets. Most recently, she joined Oak Furnitureland as Head of Ecommerce in March 2020. A graduate of the Institute of Digital Marketing and qualified Executive Business Coach, Jaime's professional passion is for making life easier for the customer at every touch point.
Anders Hjorth | DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIST | INNOVELL
Anders Hjorth is a digital marketing strategist, entrepreneur and a frequent speaker and writer on Digital Marketing as well as a judge on various Digital Marketing Awards. Anders was the Founder of several Digital Marketing agencies in Paris: Relevant Traffic [Search Marketing], BDBL MEDIA [Biddable Media] and aznos [Content Marketing] acquired by Altima in 2016 and then Accenture in 2017. Anders was also COO at GroupM Search across EMEA. He has worked for almost 2 decades across SEO, Paid Search, Affiliate marketing, Social Media and Social Ads, Display and RTB/programmatic as well as web development, hosting, domain names and more recently Content Marketing & Content Curation. Anders works out of Paris as a Digital Marketing consultant and researcher in his new company Innovell.
Jennifer Hoffman | Digital Media Consultant & Strategic Growth Advisor
Jennifer is an enthusiastic and passionate Marketing Director with over 15 years of experience in brand building and strategic marketing, with an impressive track record of developing key partner relationships and driving business growth. Fascinated by all things impacting the customer journey; brand experience, user experience and customer experience. Hyper curious about new tech, innovation and startup culture!
Veronika Höller | Global SEO Manager | CompuGroup Medical | @
I'm a Global Senior SEO-Manager and I have worked in SEO and PPC marketing for over 14 years. I started as a copywriter and PPC Manager in a little Ads Agency. I have continuously developed myself further into the direction of SEO. Over the years, I have worked as a digital marketing manager in agencies and international companies, including CompuGroup, where I’m now. International SEO, technical SEO, and the optimization of landing pages are top of my priority list. I view SEO as a whole puzzle and not just individual sub-areas, hence why I trained myself in all areas – content, technology, PPC, SMM and UX. All these pieces are important t o have a strong domain and building strong brand worldwide –only when all the pieces of the puzzle come together, the rankings goes up, and you make money with your website.
Navah Hopkins | VP of Strategic Marketing | ADZOOMA
Navah Hopkins is the VP of Strategic Marketing at Adzooma, a platform that makes managing your ad channels easy and fast. A veteran of the digital marketing industry, she began as an SEO in 2008, transitioning to PPC in 2012. Throughout her career, Navah has made a point to give back and loves sharing lessons learned on the international speaking circuit as well as local universities. She is a frequent contributor to SEJ, SEMrush, and WordStream blogs/webinars. In 2019, she became a founding member of the Paid Search Association, a group dedicated to empowering the next generation of PPC practitioners, as well as serving as a resource for all practitioners to learn from and share with the community.
Motoko Hunt | President | AJPR
Since establishing AJPR in 1998, Motoko Hunt has been providing online marketing services to various companies around the world. Her extensive knowledge of Asia and Japanese markets proves to be highly valuable as her consulting services have made a significant impact on global marketing campaigns for some of the world’s most popular multinational brands. Besides being published in industry websites and printed media, Motoko is a frequent speaker at global search marketing conferences, giving seminars and training about topics on International Search Marketing.
Kristal Ireland | Digital Director and Speaker
Previously voted as one of the UK's Top 30 Women in Digital Under 30. A specialist in Social Media and Digital Brand Strategy, Kristal is an award winning, strategic and experienced digital marketing expert. A regular digital conference speaker and industry commentator Kristal has worked in digital for over a decade developing digital solutions for some of the UK’s biggest brands.
Jayesh Jain | Senior Manager SEO & ASO | PHD (Omnicom Media Group)
Jayesh is a knowledgeable SEO & ASO specialist for Alshaya Group in the MENA region. He has a wide array of digital experience having worked in both global brand agencies and client-side roles. He is a strategy-driven and passionate SEO & ASO expert, with a strong track record of driving search growth for huge brands in highly competitive sectors. He has been associated to improve organic visibility for the world's popular brands like H&M, Victoria’s Secret, Foot Locker, The Body Shop, Thomas Cook, Acer, Carrefour, etc. He started his career in India followed by Taiwan and now in the UAE. He lives and breathes all things SEO + ASO and is passionate about bridging collaboration between SEOs, Content team, and website developers. Jayesh has completed Bachelor’s in Mass Media and holds an MBA degree in Marketing.
Lada Kalashnickova | Head of SEO | COPYBET EU LTD
Lada has worked in digital marketing since 2003. She specializes in all aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), with a focus on technical SEO, multilingual search and mobile optimization. Her clients have included Starco, Action-MCFR, and Artec 3D. Lada worked as a Global Head of SEO in Acronis, then she was a Head of SEO at SEMRush. Lada now works as the Head of SEO/ASO in CopyBet EU Ltd, the first social betting platform founded in 2015. CopyBet is a fast-growing tech company, focused on providing the best experience for their customers while following the principles of Transparency and Fair Trade. Lada enjoys lifetime studying; most recently on topics around data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. Her favorite tools are Excel, GWT, GA, Yandex Metrica and brains. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, yoga, and Japanese Art. Definitely a cat person.
Umar Khan | Nakheel
Diane Kulseth | Senior Solution Expert for SEO | Site Improve
Diane Kulseth is the Senior Solution Expert for SEO at Siteimprove, where she leads SEO education for the global team and works with customers and prospective customers in building a stronger SEO strategy. Prior to her current role, she served in Digital Strategy positions at the University of St. Thomas, the largest private college in Minnesota and local non-profit, CaringBridge.org. With over 10 years of cross-vertical experience, including Fortune 500 brands, e-Commerce, Healthcare, and Government, Diane enjoys digging into and solving complex digital marketing problems that customers face, enabling them to connect with qualified audiences and increase their brand reach. She is also a frequent digital marketing instructor for large universities in the United States.
Kaz Laljee | Head of Digital | Soc-Med: Social Media
A Chartered Marketer with years of experience, both as an academic and practitioner. Kaz has been involved in marketing since university and has a real passion for it! It gives him the perfect blend of knowledge and industry experience; which has seen him establish himself as an authority when it comes to digital marketing. Kaz also has a knack for taking complex marketing theory and technical jargon and making it easy to understand.
Judith Lewis | Founder | DeCabbit Consultancy | @decabbit
Judith is a renowned international speaker, writer, trainer, blogger and digital media consultant specialising in applying strategic understanding of digital technologies to help businesses innovate and optimise their effectiveness within the new, networked communications environment. She is a regular speaker around the world on SEO, content strategy, link building, paid media, and digital strategy, and has been recognised by her peers as one of the most influential people in the UK digital industry. Judith judges the industry leading Search Awards around the world, and has every year since their inception. She has worked with market-leading global businesses including Google, NatWest/RBS, National Gallery, Fidelity, GalaCoral, NBC Universal, Readers Digest, Bayer, Family Search, Amadeus, AMD, AmEx , Virgin.com, Virgin Startup & more. She has over 23 years of experience, predating Google in her entry into the market, and now runs her own consultancy. She has worked both in-house and agency-side. Judith also blogs about chocolate, has contributed to the book “Pimp My Site” and the Econsultancy guide to Paid Search and rewrote the large foundational Econsultancy Best Practice Guide to SEO.
Trond Lyngbø | SENIOR SEO CONSULTANT | Search Planet AS | @TrondLyngbo
Trond Lyngbø is the founder of Search Planet and a senior SEO Consultant. He has over two decades of experience in SEO, e-commerce, content strategy and digital analysis. His clients include multinational Fortune 500 corporations and major Norwegian companies. Trond has helped grow businesses through more effective search marketing and SEO strategies. He is most passionate about working with e-commerce companies and web shops to develop and expand their omni-channel marketing initiatives.
Kristjan Mar | Digital Evangelist | engaged
European Search Personality of the year 2014, Kristján Már Hauksson, he has worked in the realm of creativity and marketing for the past 20 years in his home country Iceland, UK, USA and currently in Norwayþ. He co-Founder SMFB Engine, based in Oslo, Norway, a digital agency that worked closely with the award-winning creative agency, SMFB. Kristján is the founder, and currently active partner, of the award-winning internet marketing agency The Engine, formerly known as Nordic eMarketing. The Engine is now a part of the TBWA network. Kristjan has co-written a couple of books on the matter of Digital Marketing and has through the years been on different types of boards for organizations like SEMPO and Bing Advertising.
Hamish McFadyen | Director, Consulting | Deloitte Digital
Hamish is a Director within Deloitte’s Retail Consulting practice. He partners with clients to imagine and deliver amazing customer experiences online and in-store through harnessing the power of user-centric design, digital technology and efficient business operations. Hamish’s experience spans 20 years - working both in industry and consulting with a number of well-known global Retail giants.
Aoife McIlraith | Global Search Consultant
Aoife McIlraith is an award-winning global search consultant. Named one of the “Top 20 Women making the biggest impact in Marketing Tech” in 2019. She provides consultancy to brands on international SEO, multilingual marketing and strategies, digital globalization and transformations. She is currently partnering with global brands to define multilingual voice search and digital assistant marketing strategies. She has spoken at numerous international marketing conferences covering most recently multilingual voice search. International conferences including 3XE, SEMRush Live Prague, DMEXCO, Sirius Decisions London, Localization World Beijing and Tokyo and eConsultancy Singapore. Aoife holds first class honours post graduate degrees in web science technologies and digital marketing. As a qualified programmer and developer, she provides a powerful combination and understanding of both technology and digital marketing to global brand stakeholders. Aoife has worked in marketing, technology, public relations and communications positions in Ireland and San Francisco.
Lexi Mills | MANAGING PARTNER | SHIFT6
Lexi Mills is a multi-award winning digital marketing expert specialising in PR SEO and data-driven business intelligence. She is President of The Future of Search Foundation and Managing Director of Shift6, an international consultancy which provides training and consultancy services to agencies, businesses and investors, alongside advising government entities on the risks and opportunities of algorithmic technology. Her research work focuses on the opportunities, ethics and risks of machine learning and AI within the sector of internet search.
Paul Morris | Digital & Ecommerce Director
Paul has 20 years’ experience leading Marketing & Digital both Agency & Brand side. Paul was previously Head of Marketing at Tesco Bank, global Digital Director at PZ Cussons (brands including St Tropez, Imperial Leather & Original Source), led Digital marketing at the Co-op Group (Food > Funeralcare) and has through the line experience of working both client and agency side with brands including Wickes, Laterooms, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Cash Generator, Stagecoach and Silverstone.
Mazen Mroue | HEAD OF GLOBAL DIGITAL MEDIA AND TECH | FRIESLANDCAMPINA
Mazen is the head of Global Digital Media and Tech, The Netherlands. Leading a team working on specialized nutrition products such as baby formula and his responsibilities cover media, technology, CRM, Website/SEO, Digital transformation and innovation. Mazen oversees media pitches, digital strategies, and design of the technology ecosystem following the JBP with key suppliers such as Facebook, Google, & Tik-tok Before moving to the Netherlands, Mazen worked at the agency side for 6+ years based in Dubai, Singapore, and Beirut. His diverse portfolio covers prominent multinationals such as BlackBerry, Samsung, Emirates, Etihad airlines, and all the Richemont Luxury brands. Besides being a member of the world federation of advertisers, Core member in programmatic taskforce at Iab Nederlands, member of the programmatic committee at iab SEA+India/GCC and holding 100+ certifications across all digital platforms and technologies, Mazen won many prestigious digital awards targeting the MENA region and is looking to score more worldwide. Mazen is a big believer in training both the body and the mind to be strong. So next to his professional achievements, he is a world marathoner and Guinness World Record holder, with more than 60 full marathons completed and many ultras.
Chris Nightingale | PPC Manager | AO.com
Chris is an experienced Digital Marketing Strategist with a passion to deliver through the ever evolving eCommerce landscape. His passion for digital led him to focus more on Online Retail and the exciting nuances of working for an exclusively online retailer. He is part of the vibrant AO.com Digital marketing and commerce team, on the forefront of the latest trends and technologies in order to bolster AO.com’s presence within a competitive market space
Lucy Pickering | UX and Content Strategist | William Joseph
Lucy is a UX and Content Strategist for William Joseph, a design and digital agency working mostly in the charity sector. She also freelances part-time as a digital marketing consultant. Lucy has wide-ranging digital experience, having worked with charities and local government, as well as in the arts and travel sectors. Lucy joined William Joseph in early 2022 after managing the website UX for the UK’s fastest-growing software company. She was part of the team that led an award-winning digital acceleration project at Nottinghamshire County Council. Lucy is committed to crafting user-focused experiences, backed by evidence and aligned to organisational goals. She is CIM-qualified and an Umbraco CMS certified professional.
Polly Pospelova | Digital Marketing Director | Delete Agency
Polly is the Delete agency’s digital marketing director. She works with SEO consultants, PPC managers, content & PR consultants, and technical developers. Polly works on digital strategies and solutions for major brands in sectors including higher education, sport, property, travel and more. She is also a search marketing conference speaker on SEO, page speed and performance and digital marketing.
Ned Poulter | Founder & CEO | Pole Star Digital
Ned Poulter is Founder & CEO of Pole Star Digital, a dedicated, creative and attention-commanding Manchester-based digital marketing consultancy. Pole Star Digital help brands with high performing, intelligent, data-driven digital marketing solutions. Over his career, Ned has worked with a multitude of clients, from: start-up and small/medium-sized businesses, right up to some of the biggest and most recognised brands in the world. Ned is also a well-known speaker and trainer, a familiar face at many conferences across the globe.
Bethan Rainford | Paid Media Consultant
Bethan is an experienced paid media consultant with over 6 years’ experience of working on enterprise accounts, across paid search, social, remarketing, display and shopping. Bethan has worked with clients of all sizes, including Nintendo, BMW, O’Neills, LUSH and MUJI. Bethan currently runs the paid team at Vervaunt, a London-based eCommerce paid media agency and replatforming consultancy.
Declan Reilly | Head of SEO | Evoluted | @declanjreilly
Declan has worked in digital marketing for over eight years with a specific focus on SEO. He has successfully managed many high-end SEO projects and previously led a team of 20+ account managers. Declan was recently appointed Head of SEO at Evoluted, a digital agency based in Sheffield, England.
Michelle Robbins | Sr. Director, Marketing Data & Analytics | Clearlink
For more than 20 years Michelle has lived at the intersection of technology, marketing, and data. She is an accomplished marketing, technology, and media professional with deep experience as an analyst, engineer, digital marketing, search and content strategist, editor and writer. At Clearlink, Michelle leads Consumer Brands' marketing data and analytics team, leveraging her deep technology and analysis experience to oversee the development of a holistic end-to-end reporting and analytics system and accelerate the organization's machine learning and statistical capabilities. A member of the digital marketing and search community since its beginnings in the late 90s, Michelle founded her own web development consultancy, worked agency-side at Aimclear, and spent 12 years at Third Door Media, serving as SVP, Content & Marketing Technology while also Editor in Chief for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, and MarTech Today; and leading programming for the SMX events series. She is a frequent keynote speaker, webinar presenter, and podcast guest on topics spanning martech, data, product development, content strategy, and search marketing.
Ric Rodriguez | Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer | Finsu
Ric Rodriguez is an accomplished marketing and growth leader. Ric is Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Finsu, the sustainable fashion marketplace, taking the compromise out of conscious shopping. Ric is driven and his career to date speaks to his ambition - most recently holding a senior strategy role at Vashi, the fine jewellery disruptor - where he built the digital marketing team from the ground-up, launched the Covent Garden flagship store and Innovation Centre and established an accredited approach to ESG. Prior to this, Ric held an evangelist role at the marketing technology company, Yext, where he supported sales and product teams in building new propositions for customers, including delivering an new approach for qualifying deals during the beginning of the Covid-19, which was adopted across EMEA - as well as regularly representing the NYSE-listed firm as an industry expert at events across Europe. Ric has also held significant roles in agency-side positions, at iProspect, where he lead accounts for leading brands such as Santander and Post Office; at Croud, where he was seconded into IWG’s marketing organisation to deliver the company’s digital growth across 110+ markets - work for which he won an industry award. Ric is often invited to speak at industry conferences and is a regular award judge. He has twice been a co-author for the Amazon-Bestselling “Mastering In-House SEO
Sabrina Rodriguez | Global Head of Digital Marketing | Ericsson
Sabrina Rodriguez is an international digital marketing transformation leader with 10+ years’ experience building award-winning teams and Global Centers of Excellence, always with the goal of fueling business growth through scaled innovation and upskilling. Currently Head of Digital Marketing at Ericsson, Sabrina has worked across the UK, France and Brazil and in multiple industries including Telco, Finance and Advertising. As well as being an IPA Woman of Tomorrow Finalist and member of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation Alumni, Sabrina is an active industry speaker and juror, having supported the Drum’s Social Buzz Awards, CIPR Excellence Awards and IPA’s #SocialWorks committee specializing in measuring social effectiveness.
James Rowland | Digital Performance Director | London Stock Exchange Group | @Refinitiv
James is the Digital Performance Director for London Stock Exchange Group, a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data group. As part of the Digital Marketing team, he drives the Global strategies for SEO, PPC, testing, personalisation and analytics. With nearly a decade of industry experience across both agency and client-side roles, he has a big interest in the power of content marketing to drive ROI. James started his career focusing on SEO and expanded into a much broader digital role as the years progressed. In recent weeks James was awarded as the Marketer of the Year at the Chartered Institute of Marketing Excellence Awards.
Farhaad Saleh | Head of Organic Performance | World First
Farhaad is the Head of Organic Performance at WorldFirst, previously he was the Head of SEO for Rightmove and Boohoo. With over 10 year’s experience in SEO he has worked in many verticals from property, fashion, finance, aviation etc working both client side and agency. His approach is to focus on holistic growth leveraging all marketing channels, not just organic. The best strategies are always the simple ones executed well.
Ricardo Seixas | Managing Director | One Day Agency | @
Along with his 15+ years of an international career in the digital space spanning 4 continents, Ricardo worked for consumer brands, start-ups, software houses, and digital agencies. Most recently, and after being a lead at Google and restructuring Media Agency Group’s digital division collecting multiple awards, he founded a digital marketing agency named One Day Agency. Across his experience, he led innovative digital projects and campaigns for Liverpool ONE, I Saw It First, L’Oreal, Telefonica, Sanofi, Ambev and the world’s top agencies.
Laura Slingo | Outreach Manager | Sage | @LauraSlingo
Laura is a link building and outreach specialist, who has a deep-rooted love for building links and brands. With over five years’ experience as a technical link builder and over a decade as a writer and editor, Laura knows a thing or two about great content in the search space. Link building to product pages is her speciality, and she has had the pleasure of leading outreach strategy for huge megastars, disruptor startups and everyday brands with a story to tell. Laura is the current Outreach Manager at cloud software company, Sage, leading their global offsite strategy.
Aleyda Solis | INTERNATIONAL SEO CONSULTANT | ORAINTI
Aleyda Solis is an award winning International SEO Consultant -service that she provides with her company Orainti-, a blogger (Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal and Moz), author of the SEO book in Spanish “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales” and experienced speaker (with more than 100 conferences in 20 countries in English and Spanish). Awarded as the European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 at the European Search Awards, included in Forbes as one of the 10 Digital Marketing specialists to follow in 2015, in Entrepreneur as one of the 50 Online Marketing Influencers to follow in 2016 and in Hubspot as one of the 59 Female Marketing and Growth Experts You Should be Following, she has been also interviewed in publications such as The Huffington Post and in the Google Partners Podcast.
Sophia Storey | 3 Sided Cube | co-founder
Puff Story is Co-Founder of 3 Sided Cube USA, responsible for the client relationships and impact of projects. Named as one of the top 100 most influential business developers in the UK, Puff is known for her contagious laughter, love of neon colours and an unrelenting passion to help organisations such as The American Red Cross, The World Resources Institute and Save the Children to make a real difference. Puff has vast amounts of practical experience in a variety of industries but has a love for using tech for good in the NGO, charity and third sector.
Emily Van Lierop | Global Head of Digital Operations | VW - PHD Global
Emily leads Digital Operations globally for Volkswagen at PHD, guiding the strategic and digital excellence of 27 in-market digital teams for this leading auto manufacturer. Emily cut her Digital teeth in start-ups, spending three years in marketing for two ‘web 2.0’ start-ups, before moving agency-side to hone her performance marketing skills. Since then, she’s spent the last ten years gaining experience in top London agencies (Publicis’ Starcom & Mediavest, Dentsu’s iProspect, WPP’s MEC and currently OMG’s PHD) driving value and innovation for clients across FMCG, Travel, Telco, Finance and Auto verticals. Emily keeps plugged into the London digital community as an active member of the IAB Search Advisory, and getting to see some of the industry’s top work as a judge for The Drum Search Awards, both the Global and UK Biddable Media Awards, European Agency Awards and now the European Search Awards.
Juliette Van Rooyen | HEAD OF SEO | VR SQUARED
Juliette is an SEO Specialist with more than 14 years experience in both client-side and agency environments in London & Cape Town. Starting as a developer, she was lured to the dark side of SEO with the promise of being more creative. After getting a taste for SEO, she moved to London and spent 6 years working for various agencies. Her clients included Nintendo, Samsung, COI & Shell. She returned to Cape Town where she worked on the gambling industry on the client-side, spearheading multi-region and multi-language strategies for global casino brands. After 6 years of working in that arena, Juliette returned to London in 2018 to lead UK SEO for a multinational ecommerce brand.
Anita Veszeli | Global Head of Social Engagement & Advocacy | Ericsson
Anita is the Global Head of Social Engagement & Advocacy at Ericsson, where she has been championing social-first thinking since 2013. Having amassed more than 15 years’ experience in B2B marketing and communication, and a decade in social media across various roles, she currently enjoys a unique position with oversight of all social media, employee advocacy and influencer marketing across Ericsson’s global business.
Bethan Vincent | Founder | Open Velocity
Bethan is the founder of Open Velocity, a strategic marketing consultancy based in York. Formerly Marketing Director of a leading technology consultancy and a senior manager in the cloud computing industry, their 12+ year career has been built at the intersection between marketing, product and development. Outside of their “day job”, Bethan produces The Brave podcast and newsletter, which explores how we can build a better future.
Purna Virji | Senior Manager of Global Engagement | Microsoft
Crowned the 2019 Search Personality of the Year at the US Search Awards, Purna has previously been named by Adweek on their 2018 Young Influentials List, and in 2016 was named by PPC Hero as the #1 Most Influential Expert in the world. She is a regular keynote speaker at conferences across the globe such as AdWeek, DMEXCO, The Next Web Conference and INBOUND. Purna is also a columnist on digital marketing for Search Engine Land and Moz. An award-winning former journalist, Purna is an avid traveler, aspiring top chef and amateur knitter in her spare time. Say hi @purnavirji.
Marty Weintraub | Founder & Evangelist | Aimclear
Credits include Uber, eBay, Airbnb, Dell, LInkedIn, Etsy, Eurail, Firestone, Amazon, Quest, Martha Stewart Omni, Intel, Travelocity, Macy’s, GoDaddy, 3M, InfusionSoft, Siemens, SeagullOutfitters and many more. A fixture on the international conference circuit, Marty has appeared in front of hundreds of international search & social marketing conference audiences, from Jerusalem to Sydney. Entrepreneur Magazine wrote the reason for Marty’s success is a “Unique persona that is instantly recognizable.” He has been described as “not your typical agency type,” a “social media maverick,” “Foodie-Yelp addict” and “more innovator than follower." Having helped Aimclear to Inc. 500/5000 status 6X (2012-2017: fastest growing privately held US Firms), Marty guides Aimclear agency content, vision, services & creative-hands-on. Aimclear is a 4X top 100 workplace by Minnesota Business Magazine. Marty won 4 "Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts" awards, Top 100 Twin Cities People To Know & claimed the coveted "US Search Personality Of The Year” tiara. Marty is a perennial judge and presenter at The European & UK Search Awards. His Wiley/Sybex books, "Killer Facebook Ads"Â and "The Complete Social Media Community Manager’s Guide: Essential Tools and Tactics for Business Success" are critically respected. Marty has been cited & quoted in flagship publications including WSJ, NPR, Inc., Forbes, MediaPost & Adage. Aimclear Blog is well read, having been cited as a Top 10 Small Business Blogs, Top Ten Social Media Blogs and PRWeb’s 25 Essential Public Relations Blogs You Should Be Reading.
Michelle Wilding-Baker | Head of Digital & Content | Freesat
Michelle is a globally award-winning digital marketer who specialises in data-first customer acquisition (owned/paid/earned), SEO and content strategy. She graduated with First Class Honours in Communication Studies (Journalism) and is armed with more than a decade of marketing and editorial experience across international, SME and start-up brands in highly competitive FinTech, Insurance, Travel, Beauty, eCommerce and publishing industries. Now leading the digital marketing, eCommerce, editorial, content and social strategy remit at Freesat and consulting on a project-basis for Oh Mishy, she previously completed 2.5 years as Head of SEO & Content at The Telegraph Media Group where she hired and led the ‘Best Brand SEO Team’ of 2019. Michelle regularly judges industry marketing and eCommerce awards, guest speaks at events and co-organises the ‘Take It Offline' Digital Marketing Roundtable in London and Europe.
Nick Wilsdon | Digital Consultant – Partner Markets | Vodafone Group | @nickwilsdon
Nick started his online career in 1998, giving his first SEO seminar two years later in Brighton. After moving to Moscow, he became an expert on Russian search, working with gaming clients across CIS markets. During this time he was involved in the Russian start-up community, working with Yandex, RF parliament members and the US State Department. Since his return to the UK, Nick has held head of department roles at Arena Media, part of the Havas Media Group and within the Dentsu Aegis network. As the Search Product Owner at Vodafone Group, he is standardising SEO best-practice and strategy across 22 international markets to deliver revenue growth in a challenging and competitive sector. He is particularly interested in data analysis, cross-channel/device opportunities and strategic planning.
Carbo Yu | Regional Director | Sinclair
A seasoned PR professional in Asia Pacific, Carbo drives integrated communications and storytelling strategy across the Sinclair portfolio regionally, and has a stellar record of directing communications for consumer brands and corporates across industry and sector. Seeing herself as a partner to brands, Carbo’s priority lies in enabling them to achieve and exceed their business goals through her sharp insights and quick thinking, qualities which saw her named PR Professional of the Year (Agency) by PR Awards Asia and Campaign Asia’s Women to Watch Greater China in 2021, and Asia-Pacific Account Person of the Year – 1st Runner-up by Campaign Asia in 2016. Carbo currently serves as the Deputy Chairperson at PRHK.