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.
From a transparency perspective, we may video aspects of the judging session to show on the evening and give entrants an insight into why a winning entry was chosen.
Head judges
Olga Andrienko | HEAD OF GLOBAL MARKETING | SEMrush
Together with her team she has built one of the strongest international communities in the online marketing industry. Olga has expanded SEMrush brand visibility worldwide, bringing >90% YoY average revenue growth from top 10 new markets and growing SEMrush presence in the main markets such as USA, Europe and Australia. Olga is a sought-after speaker at leading marketing conferences such as SMX, Pubcon and BrightonSEO.
Kevin Gibbons | CEO | Re:signal
Kevin is CEO at Re:signal - an award-winning SEO and content marketing agency for brands anticipating the future. Kevin has presented at a large number of conferences around the world, writes frequently online and has worked with well-known brands including Expedia, Deloitte, Pottery Barn and more and was named 2018 search personality at UK Search Awards. Website: https://resignal.com.
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.
Akvile Pareigyte | Head of Digital Consulting | VOLTLAB
Akvile has over 15 years of experience in ground-breaking digital marketing. Former head of global digital marketing at Jumeirah Group and Digital Marketing Lecturer at the Digital Marketing Institute Middle East, Akvile now focuses on digital consultancy and is actively engaged in the digital education field globally. She is a member of Google’s Digital Academy in the UK and Google’s Regional Trainer. Akvile works with numerous educational and world's leading organisations as a digital facilitator and digital marketing course content developer. Currently, she facilitates digital courses at PWC Digital Academy, The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, and Dubai College of Tourism. Akvile’s innate ability to maximize the web’s full potential has resulted in her being a sought after speaker, instructor and digital judge.
Tarek Reda | Founder | Blue Pencil Digital Marketing
When he's not playing his guitar, Tarek is a well-versed digital marketer currently running his own digital marketing consultancy and training company - Blue Pencil Digital Marketing. Tarek has a Masters degree in digital marketing and has been working in the digital space for over a decade. He's always had a passion for Search Marketing, having ran search campaigns for companies across the Middle East, Africa and Europe with monthly marketing budgets ranging from $500 to $500,000. Tarek is also a digital marketing lecturer at academies across the Middle East training individuals and companies on various digital marketing topics including Search Marketing.
Nick Wilsdon | SEO Lead - Global Channel Optimisation | Vodafone Group
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.
Murat Yatagan | SEO Consultant
Murat Yatağan is an SEO Consultant with 10+ years of expertise on SEO and UX, of which 5 years derives from his Senior Product Analyst role at Google Search Quality Team (aka. Trust & Safety) in Ireland. During his consultancy career he built expertise on technical SEO, high quality content creation strategy, outreach and international SEO throughout managing 65+ clients globally from various business verticals. Currently, he works at Brainly as VP of Growth in Poland. Before joining to Brainly, he worked at Global Savings Group as a Senior SEO Manager with a specific focus on technical SEO and offsite quality between 2017 and 2018 in Germany. He is a member of Advisory Board at a San Francisco based startup Indisera focusing on growth strategies and technical consultancy. He has been a Judge for UK Search Awards, MENA Search Awards and European Search Awards since 2016, and he also became a Judge for US Search Awards in 2018. He's also an Ambassador of OnCrawl.Judges
Roberto Croci | Managing Director | Microsoft Start Ups MENA
Roberto Croci joined Microsoft for Startups team with a wide range of knowledge, having previously worked as the Google Regional head for (EMEA) Emerging Markets (Middle East, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Africa) where he helped businesses by building & mentoring teams that could successfully penetrate new markets and ensure sustainable revenue growth. As a natural born leader, he is passionate about business, people and their growth and has more than 15 years’ experience in various industries - ranging from digital marketing, ad-tech to sales. He will be integral as the Regional Managing director at Microsoft for startups Middle East, in helping startups achieve their goals and build successful businesses by promoting their tech solutions through digital and social campaigns, opening up the right opportunities for growth, customizing a market plan to maximize joint marketing with Microsoft and providing a targeted industry co-marketing and account planning. He has specialized in leadership development as a Harvard Business School graduate and has a proven track-record of creating successful teams and growing businesses in unpredictable environments. He is passionate about Entrepreneurship and is one of the Partners at Strowlers Ventures, a micro VC-fund which invests in international startups mainly founded by top-tier MBAs.
Adam Edwards | Global Head of SEO | Reprise Digital
Adam brings 20 years of experience in SEO across four agencies, one startup, and one software company. Most recently, he grew the Reprise US SEO team from two people in 2012 to win Best Large Agency at the 2019 US Search Awards. Now in Reprise’s first ever global organic search role, he leads over 250 practitioners in 40 markets around the world. He has spoken at multiple industry events including SMX Advanced, VOICE, and Yext Onward. Outside of work, he is passionate about social causes, just having been named to the NationSwell Council after previously serving as a board member for Upwardly Global and an executive producer of the 2018 film, Refugee, that premiered at DOC NYC.
Bastian Grimm | CEO & Co-Founder | Peak Ace AG
Bastian Grimm is the CEO & Co-founder of Peak Ace and a renowned expert in large-scale, international SEO, managing sites of almost any size and in highly competitive industries. With more than 20 years’ experience in online marketing, technical and global SEO, Bastian was named “Search Personality of the Year” at the 2019 European Search Awards: a welcome acknowledgement of his contributions to a rapidly evolving industry. He currently oversees both Peak Ace’s search engine optimisation and content marketing initiatives. Bastian’s believes that understanding a target market means not only getting to grips with the language, but also the culture. This has given him a unique perspective on how to reach global audiences. Bastian leads a thriving team of expert native speakers, equipped to serve clients in 20+ languages, and the results speak for themselves. A full-service performance marketing agency with a focus on “all things search”, Peak Ace has a flair for over-achieving. Having been named a FOCUS growth champion for multiple years in a row, as well as scooping up trophies at both the European Search and Drum Search Awards, Bastian is proud to lead such an innovative, ever-expanding company. His secret? Dynamic, decisive processes, a phenomenal team and always going to bed with an empty inbox.
Neil Hardy | Digital Director | Shearings Holiday
Jennifer Hoffman | Marketing Director
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!
Salma Intabli | Digital Marketing Director | Emaar Hospitality Group
Umar Khan | Digital Marketing Manager | DAMAC Properties
Umar is a passionate digital marketer with over 8 years of experience in managing high budget digital marketing campaigns. With experience and expertise on all the verticals of Digital Channels including SEO, Google Ads, Social Media, Content Marketing, CRO UX and others. Umar is currently linked with DAMAC Properties as the Digital Marketing Manager. He also conducts digital marketing workshops & regular classes for well-known educational institutes in Dubai.
Mark Knowles | CEO | Pixelsilk, Inc.
With over three decades of experience and hundreds of software, web marketing, and development projects under his belt, Mark Knowles has an in-depth understanding of web marketing, development, and search engine optimization (SEO). His professional background includes developing marketing technology solutions for companies such as JELD-WEN, Intel, adidasGolf, PacifiCorp, and many others. And as an entrepreneur, Mark has helped create and build several multimillion-dollar technology companies. Currently, Mark helps his team and clients prioritize and focus their marketing efforts. He also found and developed the first SEO-friendly content management system (CMS), Pixelsilk. At Smartz and Pixelsilk, Mark leads a team that combines innovative marketing application solutions with SEO best practices for client websites across the globe. In addition, Mark speaks at marketing conferences and universities, co-chairs the Swivel Digital MarketingConference in Bend, Oregon, and serves as an advisory board member at SEMpdx in Portland, Oregon. On a personal note, Mark is known for his relentless energy, an insatiable appetite for learning new things, and his ability to connect disparate trends and anticipate the future of marketing and technology.
Edgar Liñayo | D2D Brand Manager | Nestlé
"Strategic-design thinker and curious by nature" - I am truly passionate about design, innovation as well as brand building. I have over 15 years of experience focused on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). As a brand builder, I have been blessed to be part of paramount projects for acclaimed top global brands such as Ariel®, Bold®, Pampers®, Always®, Tampax®, Tess®, Naturella®, Vicks®, Ruffles®, Twistos®, Lay's®, Maggi®, Purina®, among many others. Furthermore, I have worked with praised local and regional brands. I took part of the global team at Bacardi Limited, the largest private family-owned company full of passionate employees and iconic brands as Bacardi® Rums, Grey Goose® Vodka, Bombay Sapphire® Gin, Martini®, and shaped by their rich history of spirited entrepreneurship. Nowadays, I am working at Nestlé as part of the central team overseeing EMENA projects.
Jason Meininger | SEO Product Manager | StepStone UK
This is Jason’s third time judging the MENA Search Awards. Jason has been online since before browsers had graphics, and for well over a decade has been a core part of the on-and off-site SEO programmes at Totaljobs Group and StepStone, Europe’s leading family of online recruitment classified sites. With a background in web design, development, marketing, and project management, his primary focus is scalable, data-led technical optimisation tactics, improving reach and efficiency to drive organic traffic and maximise engagement across a portfolio of large-scale generalist and smaller specialist recruitment domains including Totaljobs.com, Jobsite.co.uk, and Stepstone brands across continental Europe. He also maintains a parallel career in London as a theatrical producer and lighting designer.
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.
Zbigniew Nowicki | Co-Managing Director | Bluerank
Zbigniew has been working in the digital industry for over 20 years, advising market leaders and innovators. Co-owner of Bluerank, awarded the "Best Large Integrated Search Agency" in the European Search Awards 2017 competition. Founder of CEE Digital Alliance and Digital Alliance Int. - international business partnerships of independent digital agencies from Europe. Pioneer of research on customer experience and user satisfaction, co-founder of the opiniac.com platform. Speaker at digital conferences in Poland and abroad. Privately - doubly happy dad, ultramarathon runner, lover of hard rock and Labrador Retriever dogs.
Michelle Souster | Digital Analytics Manager | Emirates
Michelle is a passionate digital strategist with over 10 years’ experience helping business implement data-driven processes with world-class analytics techniques. Her current role involves leading the digital UX analytics function for Emirates Group committed to continuously improving online customer experiences; in which search is considered an integral part. Inspired by how technology and data intersect to bring companies and consumers closer, Michelle’s expertise focuses on how analytics can improve the quality of these relationships. Having worked in a variety of sectors including Finance, Automotive, Travel, Healthcare, FMCG… she believes there are few business challenges that cannot be best-solved with a data-driven mindset!
Tim Vickery | Group Head of SEO | Property Finder
Tim is the Group Head of SEO for the MENA region at Property Finder based in Dubai. Tim has a wide array of digital experience having worked in agency and in-house roles covering affiliate marketing, paid search, digital analytics, and SEO. Tim lived and worked for 10-years in Toronto, Canada where he worked on campaign for brands such as Amex, Chrysler, and Aviva. Previously Tim was the Head of SEO for Samsung, as well as holding senior positions with Performics and VCCP in the UK. Tim’s role at Property Finder is to work across the MENA region to increase organic search visibility for brands in The UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
Colin Woon | Head of SEO | CV Library
