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.
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.
Alli Berry | Director of SEO & Content Strategy | The Motley Fool
Jeremy Cabral | COO | Finder | @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.
daniel Cheung | Search Engine Optimization Manager | Optus | @Optus
Brodie Clark | SEO Consultant | Brodie Clark Consulting
Miki Clarke | Senior Manager, Digital Media | Allianz Australia | @allianz_au
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.
Motoko Hunt | President, International Search Marketing Consultant | 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.
Shefali Joshi | Digital Optimisation Specialist | BankVic | ex- MONASH UNIVERSITY | @MonashUni
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 who has successfully developed and executed Omnichannel digital Marketing strategy for a number of 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 organic search for Kmart. 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 for optimising online channels developing brand strategy in order to maximise business growth via online channels, increase brand exposure and improve brand positioning, through her innovative approach, research and analysis. Her love for digital marketing and SEO, inspired many people. She conducted SEO training and seminars for staffs at every company she worked for including Kmart to inspire team members coming from any background understanding the power of digital and search.
Phil LEAHY | Founder | MedCart Marketplace | ex- RETAIL GLOBAL | @RetailGlobalAU
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 | @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.
Julian Roben | SEO Specialist (AU) | Flight Centre Australia | @flightcentreAU
Passionate about data-led strategy that creates last-click success for both brands and customers, Julian has over 7 years of experience in SEO. Having worked across a range of industries, he is currently the SEO specialist for the Australian arm of Flight Centre. A part of the global SEO team, he is responsible for organic search success as the brand undergoes a digital overhaul, to cement itself as the authority on travel and tourism as we navigate out of the pandemic.