Judges

The awards are judged by an esteemed panel of industry leaders and experts, the judging is a rigorous two-stage process including pre-scoring to determine shortlists and a judging meeting where entries are discussed and evaluated in detail to decide the winning entries.

The panel consisted of industry leaders and experts from Australia, as well as those who have an international presence in the search industry.

The following list of judges is not complete, it will be updated as we receive other confirmations.

Daniel Alexander | Senior Manager Digital Communications | NRMA |

Daniel heads up digital content, social media and SEO at the NRMA. Passionate about helping people, he takes a customer lead approach in creating digital content experiences that inspire meaningful engagement and build brand loyalty. Daniel is inspired by the power of digital communications to create positive change.

Lyndon Barnett | Senior Digital Content and SEO Manager | Vodafone Australia |

Lyndon currently manages digital content and search engine optimisation for Vodafone Australia. He devises content and search strategies that drive online, in-store and over the phone conversions. He’s previously worked for Flight Centre, Groupon and the ABC.

Jeff Bullas | Owner | JEFFBULLAS.COM PTY LTD |

Jeff is the owner of jeffbullas.com. Forbes calls him a top influencer of Chief Marketing Officers and the world's top social marketing talent. Entrepreneur lists him among 50 online marketing influencers to watch. Inc.com has him on the list of 20 digital marketing experts to follow on Twitter. Oanalytica named him #1 Global Content Marketing Influencer. BizHUMM ranks him as the world's #1 business blogger.

Jeremy Cabral | COO | Finder |

Jeremy is part of the founding team and the COO of Finder. Having successfully grown finder.com.au into Australia's largest comparison website, Finder is now expanding globally with the goal of becoming the world's largest comparison platform. Together with his incredible team of talented digital marketing professionals Jeremy have helped improve financial literacy in Australia and assisted millions of people in Australia to make better informed decisions.

Arnoldo Cabrera | Global Digital Optimisation Manager | IKEA |

Arnoldo is an experienced online marketing professional with extreme focus on delivery quality. Arnoldo specializes in SEO & SEM Lead generation, Inbound Marketing and Web analytics. Prior to IKEA he has worked in a variety of industry such as hospitality, online gaming and IT Security since the beginning of 2000 in the of digital marketing area with highly focus on Multilingual Search Engine Optimisation.

Lorena Casillas | Global Growth Marketing Manager | Canva |

Lorena is currently a Product Localization Marketing Manager at Canva. During the last 6 years she has been focused on a diverse range of Growth Marketing initiatives at Canva including user acquisition, monetization and many more. Previously she was the LATAM Marketing Manager for the edtech company Brainly.

Daniel Cheung | SEO Manager | Adobe (APJ) |

Daniel is relatively new to enterprise SEO, having spent 3.5 years learning SEO agency-side looking after Australia's biggest insurer and one of Australia's largest banks. Starting as a SEO junior (knowing nothing at all!), he quickly realised open communication and empathy were core to client retention. By the end of his tenure as Team Lead, his greatest achievement was creating a series of 30+ Loom videos for onboarding new hires so that they wouldn't need to feel like he did when he first started. He now leads organic growth at Optus Smart Spaces. As a strong advocate of DE&I, Daniel produces a weekly podcast called Dreading Sundays where he actively asks people from minority communities to share how they have grown in their careers so that others who look like them, feel like them, and sound like them may seek inspiration to do the same.

Miki Clarke | Head of Digital Performance | Allianz Australia |

Miki is heading up Allianz’s Digital Media team and managing investment across digital / performance based channels. Previously spent 6.5 years at MEC Australia (now known as Wavemaker) heading up their SEO and CRO team and prior to that the Performance team, responsible for both paid and organic search and paid social.

Matt Depoortere | Senior SEM Specialist | PET CIRCLE |

Matt Depoortere is an experienced SEM Specialist who recently joined the Pet Circle team to lead the Paid Search strategy. He's got many years of experience, working in both agency and client-side roles across multiple competitive verticals, such as retail and travel. After living in Amsterdam for 5 years and working for brands such as Coolblue, TUI and Google, he moved to Australia and worked as a Performance Marketing Consultant for an e-commerce agency and now joined the Pet Circle team. Matt is most passionate about the combination of data, marketing and automation.

Shelly Fagin | Director SEO | DigitalOcean |

Shelly is the Director of SEO at Digital Ocean. With 20+ years of experience, her career track includes being Director of Growth Marketing SEO at Credit Karma, as well as SEO Product Manager at Cox Automotive. Shelly is also a proud Brand Ambassador for powerhouse SEO Tool company, Semrush, and a former Community Manager starting up their Facebook Community- Semrush Allstars. She first started working in web development over 20 years ago, and shortly after her fascination with SEO began. Shelly is a coder at heart, enjoys developing WordPress sites and specializes in Technical SEO and auditing.

Amin Foda | Director, Marketing Infrastructure | Monash University |

Amin Foda is the Director, Marketing Infrastructure at Monash University. He is responsible for enhancing Monash’s Audience Communication Experience, defining the MarTech, Automation, web and email ecosystem, while advancing the University’s use of marketing data through data science, analytics and research to optimise performance across channels. Amin has over 15 years experience within various industries, helping them deliver effective marketing, develop robust audience experiences and improve return on relationships using data-driven tactics.

Blake Hutchison | CEO | Flippa |

Blake is the CEO at Flippa.com, the #1 marketplace globally to buy and sell online businesses. Flippa enables business owners to exit and acquire through its end-to-end marketplace including AI powered buyer matching, integrated insights and benchmarking, embedded legal docs, dynamic deal room and payment services. Prior to Flippa, Blake held prominent leadership roles as Chief Revenue Officer at Luxury Escapes, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Xero.

Shefali Joshi | Digital Optimisation Specialist | BankVic | ex- MONASH UNIVERSITY |

Shefali leads the search engine optimisation for Monash University (largest University in Australia - 70,000+ student enrollments across 6 locations in Australia, Malaysia, Italy, India and China). She provides strategic advice and insights to business areas across faculties and international markets in reviewing their web and content strategy, with a strong track record of delivering improved online presence. She has 16 years of work experience specialising in the area of digital marketing, web development and optimisation. She has previously worked for companies like ANZ, Intelledox and BeyondBlue. Her interests range from web optimisation, data analysis and understanding the complexities of the mind.

Parmiss Kia | SEO Manager | Kmart

Parmiss is a strategic leader and data-driven Digital Marketer with over 15 years of experience in all things marketing. She has successfully developed and executed Omnichannel Digital Marketing strategies for several Australian & international brands, including Kmart, Country Road Group, REA Group and Royal Canin ANZ. Parmiss is currently the SEO Manager at Kmart Australia and New Zealand, developing a world-class SEO strategy driving the organic search for Kmart ANZ. She has successfully developed an innovative data-driven SEO strategy by coupling strategic marketing and Search Engine Optimisation through consumer behaviour insight and customer experience lens. She is passionate about optimising online channels, developing a brand strategy to maximise business growth via online channels, increasing brand exposure and improving brand positioning through her innovative approach, research and analysis.

Phil LEAHY | Founder | MedCart Marketplace | ex- RETAIL GLOBAL |

Phil has a deep passion for creating connections. That’s why he ended up founding two major annual conferences for digital retailers on opposite sides of the world—Australia’s Retail Global and the United States’ Retail Global conference. Hosting conferences allows him to bring creative minds from around the world together to share their stories. And when they do, meaningful change happens.

Judith Lewis | Founder | Decabbit |

Judith Lewis is the founder of the Decabbit Consultancy specialising in integrated digital marketing consultancy and execution. She is a specialist integrated online marketer with skills in SEO, PPC, and Social Media Marketing as well as other digital marketing techniques. She has been doing SEO since before it had a name and has worked both in-house and agency-side. She has judged both UK & European Search Awards, is a founding everywoman Modern Muse and is the coordinator for London Girl Geek Dinners. Having both an in-house and agency background, her clients have included Google, Virgin, NSPCC, Zopa, Slendertone, the Guggenheim, SAP, Amadeus, Blue Cross, & ShareThis. She works from planning through to execution, integrating her digital expertise through research & analysis, design & build through to deployment.

Trond Lyngbo | Senior SEO Consultant & Founder | Search Planet AS

Trond Lyngbø is the founder of Search Planet and a senior SEO Consultant. He has over 20 years 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. Trond is a columnist at Search Engine Land and Marketing Land and co-author of Google It: Total Information Awareness (2016).

Tania Mushtaq | Head of Global Marketing | Castlepoint Systems |

Tania has over 20 years’ experience in sales, change management, communications and marketing. For the past decade, she has been involved in building B2B growth strategies for tech start-ups and scale-ups with a strong focus on creating highly innovative and truly integrated marketing campaigns. She currently heads up global marketing for Castlepoint Systems, a deep tech, ethical AI Australian start-up where she is building international strategies for expansion through digital, content, social, public relations, and field marketing. Tania has strong expertise in using the power of creative, compelling content to engage audiences, building omni-channel campaigns on small budgets that deliver high ROI and differentiating brands in a competitive landscape.

Julian Roben | SEO Specialist | Entain AUNZ |

Passionate about data-led strategy that creates last-click success for both brands and customers, Julian has over a decade of experience in SEO. His expertise in search engine optimisation, app store optimization, digital strategy, and data/analytics has helped businesses from a wide range of industries improve their online visibility and grow over time.

Vincent Samba | Head of Digital | Decathlon |

Experienced Ecommerce Specialist and Product Owner with a demonstrated history of working in the sporting goods and luxury goods industry. Skilled in E-commerce, Project Management, Shopify, Algolia, Klaviyo, eBay, Click Up, Web Merchandising, Affiliate Marketing, Marketplaces, HTML, CSS, Shopify Scripts, Performance Marketing, Figma, SEO, SFMC and Analytics tools.

Nikola Sarbinowski | Head of Individual Giving | UNICEF Australia |

Nikola leads a talented team of marketers and customer service experts at UNICEF Australia. With a digital-first approach, they inspire everyday Australians to make an impact for children, supporting UNICEF to continue its work saving more lives than any other charity in the world. When a disaster strikes, the UNICEF Australia team launches emergency appeals across digital channels within hours, raising funds for emergency response, and uses data, research and ai to optimise marking programs to improve return and scale acquisitions.

Leonardo Saroni | Co-founder & Chief Digital Officer | Fratelli Desideri |

Leonardo Saroni is an experienced digital marketer with 15+ years of experience in leading teams in the areas of Growth and Performance Marketing, Advertising Technology, Partnerships and Product development. With an extensive knowledge of the digital industry, focused on Growth Marketing and customer acquisition strategies for e-commerce (b2c) and SaaS (b2b). He is passionate about Search engine optimization (SEO), Performance Marketing (Search engine marketing, Paid social advertising) and Affiliate Marketing.

Angelos Savvaidis | Senior SEO Manager | Simply Wall St. |

Angelos is currently the Senior SEO Manager for Simply Wall St. With more than 10 years of SEO experience, Angelos is focusing on the technical as well as the on-page aspects of the SEO strategy for tens of millions of pages. His career track includes Envato and has been the Head of SEO in numerous start-up agencies working across a number of industries worldwide.

Robyn Showers | Head of Content | Vimeo |

Robyn leads a team of SEO content strategists at Vimeo. Based in Washington, DC, Robyn has spent more than a decade telling stories about technology and the people who use. Obsessed with developing content that inspires, educates, and delights, and build content programs that serve as the strategic storytelling arm of the marketing team. She excels in balancing long-haul, brand-building programs with innovative experiments that drive immediate impact.

Leah Silverlock | Global Director of Social Media | American Express Global Business Travel |

Leah is the Global Director of Social Media at American Express Global Business Travel. She is an experienced strategic brand leader, content and community-driven - a believer in authentic engagement driving loyalty and conversions.

Purna Virji | Principal Content Solutions Consultant | LinkedIn |

Purna is a globally recognized content strategist and marketer who has been named by Adweek on their Young Influentials List, was crowned the Search Personality of the Year by the US Search Awards and was named by PPC Hero as the #1 Most Influential Expert in the world. Prior to joining LinkedIn, she led global learning and thought leadership programs for Microsoft. Over the past two decades, she has marketed content as a creator, storyteller, program manager, SEO, publisher, instructional designer and brand evangelist. She is a columnist and top-rated international keynote speaker who has been featured in The Drum, TNW, Marketing Land and Adweek. She finds joy in lifting others and is an active mentor supporting women in technology.

Gavin Watson | Monday |

With solid experience in the SaaS space, delivering software that provides genuine solutions remains a focus for Gavin. He is a creative thinker at heart. Combined with tangible objectives, he has been able to achieve a successful career managing sales marketing and business development for both local and global enterprises. Also has first-hand experience with a range of Martech solutions including marketing automation, marketing resource management (MRM), approval workflow,API's, artificial intelligence and digital asset management (DAM).