The UK eCommerce Awards have been judged by industry leaders and experts.
Current Judges
Previous Judges include:
Judges
Nick Andrews | SENIOR SEARCH MANAGER | M&S | @
Nick Andrews is the Senior Search Manager for the UK's largest department store, Marks and Spencer (M&S). Nick currently manages all SEO and PPC activity at M&S and has previously held positions as both SEO Manager and PPC Manager at Debenhams and Head of SEO at 2 UK digital marketing agencies. With over a decade's experience in search marketing, Nick brings a wealth of experience to the European Search Awards. Nick is a long-time supporter of the industry awards having sat on the European Search Awards judging panel for several years, along with the UK Search Awards.
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.
Michael Ashworth | Co-Founder & Managing Director | Nublue
Michael founded Nublue in 2005 with his brother Tom to create and host exceptional ecommerce websites. Today he leads a team of 45, focussing on running a business which people enjoy doing business with. Michael is an expert in Magento, Shopware, Shopify and ecommerce strategy, brand promotion and management. His strengths lie in facilitating growth and delivering big impact ecommerce platforms for ambitious brands. Out of work, Michael’s keen on snowboarding, sailing and scuba diving to avoid getting square eyes.
Dan Barker | ECOMMERCE, DIGITAL MARKETING, ANALYTICS 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.
Alastair Barlow | FOUNDER AND CHIEF DREAMER, INTERIM CFO | FLINDER, WOLF & BADGER
Alastair Barlow is founder and Chief Dreamer at flinder. He leads a team that helps e-commerce businesses to scale business operations, improve performance and prepare for investment. Alastair is also interim CFO at Wolf & Badger, an award-winning digital marketplace that provides a route to market for independent fashion, home, beauty and lifestyle brands from all over the world. Alastair has overseen system transformations, process improvements, cashflow forecasting and scenario modelling, KPI dashboards and designed management information reporting for e-commerce businesses. Outside of work, his passions include spending time with his daughter, fitness, cycling, snowboarding, skiing, reading, self-development, business, motorsports, rugby, international travel and the arts. flinder works with fast-growth businesses using technology to simplify complex data and deliver relevant insight.
Neil Callaghan | Director of Business Development | Beehive Research Limited
Neil is Business Development Director at Beehive Research and has worked in the research industry for 30 years. During that time, he has worked across CX, VoC, CEM, Employee Engagement, continuous EPoS data solutions, SaaS and Mystery Shopping. He has worked with many client companies helping to hone their requirements and develop solutions with them to meet their needs by designing practical programmes, collecting rich feedback and delivering actionable insight into their businesses. Neil now works with Beehive who provide truly bespoke and customised research solutions that enable their clients to engage with customers, prospects, stakeholders or employees. Beehive help global businesses understand the customer experience and drivers of customer satisfaction and listen to the 'voice of the customer' to understand and serve their customers better. Neil is a strong advocate of new technologies in research and helping clients achieve customer centricity.
Kunle CAMPBELL | ECOMMERCE ADVISOR
Kunle is an eCommerce advisor, international speaker and host of the 2X eCommerce Podcast. He coaches eCommerce and retail teams with 'growth roadmap plans' that focus on unlocking growth through acquisition, retention, and experience delivery. Kunle has interviewed over 250 DTC ecommerce leaders.
Russ Carroll | Global Head of Klarna Open Banking | Klarna
Russ has been with Klarna for 4 and a half years as is a key member of the management team behind Klarna's meteoric UK growth. Focussed primarily on partnerships with some of the world's leading e-commerce brands. Prior to that Russ held senior commercial positions at Rakuten, eBay and Experian and started his professional career in the Ad Agency world.
Luke Carthy | eCommerce Growth Consultant
Luke is a well-seasoned eCommerce consultant and international speaker delivering double/triple-digit growth for eCommerce brands. Luke parks himself right in the centre of CRO, growth and SEO disciplines. Having worked with brands spanning both D2C and B2B verticals including CAT, Renault and Mayflex, Luke knows a thing or two when it comes to getting C-suite buy-in and delivering smart, scalable eCommerce growth.
Dave Chaffey | Co-founder and content Director | Smart Insights
Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and content director of marketing and e-commerce learning platform Smart Insights. Dave is author of 5 bestselling books on Ecommerce including Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice and Digital Business and E-commerce Management. He has been recognised as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have shaped the future of Marketing by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.His podcast is What's New's in Marketing.
Michael Durey | Digital Marketing Lead | 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 (Email and Push), Paid Social and Programmatic Display has allowed Samsung to maximise in-market traffic through to Samsung.com and ultimately has led to the most successful flagship launch (Galaxy S10) and Black Friday sales period the company has ever had.
Emma Forward | Independent eCommerce Consultant
Emma is an independent eCommerce consultant with 10 years' experience in eCommerce. She worked in-house heading up eCommerce at Royal Academy of Arts prior to setting up her consultancy. Since becoming an independent consultant, she's project managed a number of migrations and re-builds across a variety of different verticals and retailers, including fashion, luxury, lifestyle, media and heritage sectors. She works to increase profitability online through eCommerce strategy, conversion rate optimisation and site auditing. She's delighted to be joining the judging panel of the UK eCommerce Awards for the second time.
Diego Fria | eCommerce Director | Totême
Diego Fria leads the eCommerce team at luxury fashion house Totême, helping create the overall digital strategy and product vision. Having recently re-platformed to Shopify Pus and launched a Tmall store in China, Totême is going through rapid change to support and fuel their hyper-growth phase. Diego is passionate about creating value for customers and fans of the brand leveraging the right tech to achieve this. He’s originally from Buenos Aires and loves tech as much as he loves tango.
Luis Navarrete Gomez | HEAD OF GLOBAL SEARCH MARKETING | Lego
Luis is Head of Global Search Marketing at The LEGO Group, and defines the strategy for search marketing activity globally for the iconic toy company. On these years in the company, Luis has managed to create a global organization that reaches both children and parents with engaging content in more than 140 markets. He is a regular writer and speaker about Search Marketing and business leadership and plays an active role in the search community. He is a member of the board of directors of SEMPO, the largest nonprofit trade organization in the world serving the search and digital marketing industry. He is also a fellow member of the Marketing Society, member of the advisory board of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and participates actively at conferences and specilized publications. He is also member of the judging panels of industry leading awards, as the DMA Awards, the UK and US Search Awards, The Drum and The Biddable Media awards. Luis has a technical background on computer science and has more than 14 years' experience in Search Marketing with cross-functional expertise in technology and business management and leadership.
Jaime Hill | Head of eCommerce | Oak Furnitureland
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.
Natalie Hutton | Head of Customer | Notonthehighstreet
Natalie is a CRM and Loyalty specialist, having built her 20 year career delivering strategic transformation for customer centric brands such as T-Mobile, Tesco Clubcard, easyJet and most recently as Head of Customer at Notonthehighstreet. Her experience in developing communication and data strategies, together with multi-channel personalised customer experiences has helped her deliver impressive results. Her passion is to connect together data, tech and customer insight to help brands build rewarding relationships with their customers.
Kristal Ireland | Director of Digital | UK Coaching
Previously voted as one of the UK's Top 30 Women in Digital Under 30, Kristal Ireland is a specialist in digital transformation and digital brand strategy. An award winning, strategic and experienced digital marketing expert, Kristal is the Director of Digital for the national charity UK Coaching. A regular digital conference speaker and industry commentator Kristal has worked in digital for over a fifteen years developing digital solutions for some of the UK’s biggest brands.
Al Keck | Founder & CEO | Infinity Nation
Al has worked closely with leading brands such as Reader’s Digest, Rapha, eBay, Graham & Green, Weird Fish, Cass Art, and Trekwear to name a few. By partnering with his clients he has planned, implemented and redeveloped their online marketing strategies to make them work smarter, propelling their overall online revenue and ROI. Through Al’s digital leadership, Infinity Nation has received a number of awards. Most recently, Infinity Nation won the Digital Performance Award at the DIRECT COMMERCE INNOVATOR AWARDS 2019 But it’s not all work and no play. Al also regularly contributes to the community. He has raised over £14K for Winston’s Wish, Parkinson’s UK, United Foundation, and a local primary school by participating in charity cycles. Al is also a regular sailor − competing whenever he can in between time with his son and daughter.
Karl Lillrud | Global eCommerce Strategy Expert | Synergy Group | @
Karl is a leading expert in eCommerce globalization and growth strategies and has been working with some of the top brands around the world. Karl is a sought after professional Mentor, Global speaker, and two times TEDx talks speaker, as well as being a bestselling author of multiple books where his latest book is called "Hacking your destiny" Learn more about Karl Lillrud on www.karllillrud.com
Davina Lines | MANAGING DIRECTOR | ECOMMERCE CLUB & MIXING DIGITAL
Davina Lines is Managing Director of Mixing Digital and the Ecommerce Club. She brings a wealth of knowledge and a big black book of digital contacts to ensure Mixing Digital’s event management services are of the highest standard. Davina co-founded Netimperative in 1999 and became Managing Director in 2002, stewarding the brand into new product launches and creating one of the most successful events programmes in the digital marketing industry. In the mid 90s Davina cut her digital teeth on New Media Age (now Econsultancy), forming part of the founding team and was responsible for the commercial development of the magazine and its early events from launch in May 1995 to 1999. In recent years Davina launched an ecommerce peer-to-peer community, the Ecommerce Club, which runs regular events in London and Manchester on topics relevant to the retail community.
Rob Linton | DIRECTOR OF KEY ACCOUNTS | MIQ
As a Director of Key Accounts at global programmatic media company MiQ, Rob oversees the operational and commercial teams in the Northern UK business. Starting out as a media trader in 2013, Rob now leads agency relationships and advises brands across multiple sectors, including travel, retail and direct to consumer, on programmatic strategy and execution. An expert in digital, and a key industry player, Rob is a champion of North England’s vibrant digital community. He educates brands on digital marketing, providing tutorship and workshops specifically for businesses undergoing transformation. A seasoned speaker, and MiQ representative at Manchester India Partnership events, a Digital City Festival speaker and awards judge, Rob is also ‘Digital Futures’ Ambassador with Manchester Digital.
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.
Mark Patchett | Founder | Growth Shop
Mark is the Founder of Growth Shop and a driving force behind one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce businesses. He has more than a decade of experience building lean growth teams to rapidly scale businesses - with over $1B in revenue-driven to date. He has worked across 250+ companies from hyper-growth startups through to global brands like The BBC, The Economist, Channel 4 and Qantas. Mark has managed over $150m in advertising spend across almost every channel out there. He has spent 1,000s of hours in UX, customer, competitor and market research, launched and scaled his own businesses, built training programs and much, much more.
David Pert | Head of eCommerce | Music Magpie
David has worked in eCommerce for 15 years, across a range of industries but specialising in retail businesses going through digital transformation. He is currently Head of eCommerce at Music Magpie Plc and has previously driven eCommerce growth with Very Group, Slater Menswear and DW Fitness First. He has a passion for driving eCommerce growth through improving the user experience and is a firm believer in constant user testing, feedback and experimentation
Ayesha Sethi | Global Head of Social Media & SEO | Vodafone Group Services
Ayesha Sethi comes with 15 years of strong multi-industry global experience with robust exposure to European, Asia Pacific & South African markets. Her core strengths are in business management, brand marketing, digital media & business development. In the past, she has worked extensively on brand & digital assignments across the Asia Pacific region with renowned brands like Yum! Brands (Taco Bell & Pizza Hut), Goodyear Tires, Vodafone and Zapak (Online gaming giant in India). Currently she leads Social Media Marketing & SEO globally for Vodafone Group Services spanning over multiple countries including European markets, India & South Africa. Ayesha was the winner of the prestigious CMO Asia Young Marketing Star Award for her work in Yum Brands.
Chris Simmance | Ambassador | Under2
Chris Simmance is the Chairman and Founder of Optus Digital and Ambassador to Under2. The companies provide both SEO and PPC services as well as wicked fast loading web builds that get users hearts pumping. Based in London he spends a great deal of time getting cranky at the state of the web and plans to fix it, one site at a time. He and his team are the people behind the BrightonSEO ticketing platform, you know, the one that hasn’t gone down on every ticket release day since we changed it. Love the ballot or hate it, it doesn’t fall apart anymore. He’s a big fan of Bill Gates’ quote “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” as it’s a really good way of getting away with finding a shortcut. Perhaps that’s where the obsession with site speed comes in? Chris is pretty much self taught and started working in SEO from a small local agency through to a multinational before deciding to “go it alone” and set up for himself. 5 years later and 2 regional offices and he’s winning work from some well known established high street.
THOMAS J. VOSPER | CEO & Co Founder | Aisle-3
With over 12 years in ecommerce Thomas has a long record of delivering growth for many of the largest names online. During over six years at Amazon, he led strategic seller acquisitions; executed new category launches; and delivered cutting-edge merchant services. After moving to Tesco, he tripled their marketplace business in twelve months. He founded online marketplace Aisle3 in March 2020. Thomas has a detailed insight on strategy, performance marketing and operations across thousands of eCommerce sites, high street stores, and digital marketing agencies