The Judges

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Akash Mehta is British entrepreneur and businessman. Mehta graduated from Imperial College London in Engineering and previously worked at Burberry, Estée Lauder Companies and Dior. Currently, Akash is the CEO and founder of Akash Brands, a founder-led conscious beauty brand incubator and Akash Agency, a next generation digital marketing agency and consultancy. His first brand will launch in early 2020 worldwide and at key retailers such as Sephora. Recently, at 25 years old, Mehta was placed on Forbes’ ’30 under 30’ list in Media & Marketing. He has spoken at several conferences including TEDx, Vogue & Adweek and is a board member of luxury group LVMH for Patou. In terms of social media, with 300,000 followers on @mehta_a, Mehta is now focusing on using his voice for good, as a Global Guardian for UNICEF and ambassador for PETA.

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Alvin is the Commercial Director at Beano Studios, a rebellious content business driven by insight and data, which creates, curates and provides entertainment worldwide. With over a decade’s worth of experience working in youth media start-ups, Alvin generates high level partnerships across insight, content and media. This includes reviewing and examining the role of influencers and social media platform in the lives of British children and families.

Prior to joining Beano Studios, Alvin was a key member of The Hook Labs team, the award winning social marketing agency and content studio where he worked with the likes of Lionsgate, giffgaff, Bandai Namco, Hasbro, Samsung and Warner Bros integrating influencers and content formats for powerful results.

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Anna Anderson heads up Condé Nast’s Global Influencer Network, providing strategy and insight to all of Condé Nast’s local offices. She works across all Condé Nast brands including Vogue and GQ and assists them and their advertisers in creating outstanding influencer work.

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Investment banker turned social media influencer – Bushra Sidd runs a lifestyle account documenting the trendiest new places, products & fashion items on the market. Originally from Bangladesh, she’s been settled in London for the past 8 years & has an undergraduate & masters degree in IT & business from University College London (UCL). She’s a big believer of always pursuing one’s passions because life’s too short to do something you don’t enjoy.

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In her role at Charlotte Tilbury, Camilla oversees all social media, PR, Advocacy (including influencer marketing, community management and pro artistry communications) and events on both a global and local level. Prior to Charlotte Tilbury, Camilla was Head of PR & Events at Benefit Cosmetics UK & Ireland, and before that, worked at Halpern as Associate Director of the Health & Beauty team.

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Carla has considered the internet her second home since she was a teenager so when she realized she could turn her passion into a career, she jumped straight into it. For the past 8 years, Carla has been working within online marketing for brands across different industries, such as education, recruitment and entertainment.

Since 2016, Carla has been the Social Media Manager for Cineworld Cinemas where she is in charge of all social channels, video, influencers, digital marketing campaigns and the Cineworld blog.

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Chris Stokel-Walker is a British journalist whose work regularly appears in WIRED, The Economist and Newsweek.

He is known for breaking major news about YouTube and often reports on the site for television, radio and podcasts, as well as FFWD, the online video publication he has established with Medium.

For his book, YouTubers, he travelled around the world, attending YouTube events and speaking to behind-the-camera producers and powerbrokers, including key creators KSI, Hank and John Green, Emma Blackery, and many others.

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Dan Thorne is Guinness World Records’ Senior Social Media Manager and is responsible for content curation and community management across all GWR’s social channels.

Since joining the company in 2013, Dan has helped grow GWR’s social audience to over 16M followers on Facebook, 3.5M on Snapchat Discover and 5M on TikTok.

As well as developing GWR’s partnerships with Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, Dan has played a key role in creating and presenting the company’s Facebook Live broadcasts. His favourite moment was the Facebook Live link-up with NASA from the International Space Station to interview record holder Peggy Whitson.

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Emma is Head of Social Content at Virgin Trains. Her ‘work’ here has included inventing the award-winning #Avocard, persuading Will Ferrell to sign her toilet seat and launching a Dean Gaffney-themed Facebook bot. Prior to Virgin Trains, Emma led the content strategy at Hostelworld, where she had the pleasure of working not-very-closely with the likes of 50 Cent and Mariah Carey. And prior to THAT, Emma wore round glasses and worked for a magazine in Berlin.

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With more than a decade of tourism PR and marketing experience, Emma Mead was an early adopter of Influencer Marketing for VisitBritain. Under her leadership, the company has seen many successes with their influencer campaigns including ‘Best Global Partnership 2017’ (PRWeek Global Awards) and ‘Europe’s leading Marketing Campaign 2018’ (World Travel Awards). More recently, she has been examining the metrics used in reporting influencer campaigns to see how she can better demonstrate the impact they have on organisational goals. This work has led to transformation in the way that campaigns are measured at VisitBritain and she now advises on how to include (and evaluate) influencers as part of the marketing mix across government and to destinations tourism organisations globally.

LinkedIn

As International Social Marketing Manager at Marks & Spencer, I manage and execute social and influencer marketing campaigns across NAPAC and EMEA regions for M&S Clothing & Home. Influencer market insight and localised content plays a pivotal role in aligning our brand positioning with international customers, where our iconic brand is lesser known. It is an essential and exciting part of our strategy to drive brand awareness and acquire new customers for our growing ecommerce business.

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James is the Head of Community Management and Social Media at Jagex. He has seven years’ experience in community and social in the gaming sector, and a passion for all-things influencer marketing – recently running the Old School RuneScape Mobile launch influencer marketing campaign.

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United Nations and TedX Speaker Jaz O’Hara is the founder of The Worldwide Tribe, an organisation and online community raising awareness about the refugee crisis, as well as supporting those caught up in it.

The Worldwide Tribe began after a Facebook post Jaz wrote about her first trip to the Calais Jungle (in July 2015) went viral. Since then, Jaz has worked tirelessly in camps across Europe and the Middle East to tell the stories that otherwise go unheard.

The Worldwide Tribe has run many projects on the ground, from installing wifi in camps in France and Greece, to organising a football tournament in Dunkirk, funding a fire truck in Calais, running art projects in Za’atari camp in Jordan, supporting a Search and rescue in the Med, coordinating food, clothing, shelter and much much more. Jaz and her team are dedicated to challenging the fear-based narrative of much of today’s media and society.

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Layla has worked in digital marketing for eight years, working with a cross-section of brands from Pampers to Cartier. Throughout her career, Layla has driven brands to find their voice online, whether that be through their own channels or those of their greatest advocates.

Before specialising in influencer marketing, Layla was responsible for social media management for brands such as ABInbev, Curry Sark Whisky and Three Mobile.

In the past four years, she has focused her role on influencer marketing. Whilst working at MSL London she played a crucial role in the development of multi award-winning Renault #BehindCarDoors campaign. More recently, Layla has taken on the role of Head of Influencer Marketing at the Shop Direct (Very and Littlewoods) and is working across the brand to deliver meaningful campaigns.

LinkedIn

Bio to follow shortly.

LinkedIn

Having started his career kicking people out of chatrooms for swearing Michael has since progressed to developing corporate strategy and governance for leading global organisations with multi-billion annual revenues, via several years studying behavioural economics at Harvard. Throughout his career he has always disliked writing about himself in third person. Over his fifteen years in social and digital, influencers and developing subject matter experts into thought leaders has been a cornerstone of his approach to humanising brands and having humans who know and love the products and services speak on their behalf.

Prior to and sometimes alongside this Michael has also worked as a journalist and a thrice signed professional musician and songwriter for other more successful and arguably more attractive artists.

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Mike Alnaji currently leads the digital marketing efforts for Majid Al Futtaim – Carrefour in the United Arab Emirates, where he has contributed to their growth across digital touchpoints as well as positioning them as a leading online grocer.

Prior to joining Carrefour, Mike was one of the early adopters of influencer marketing in the Middle East region, who has established his credibility by building one of the first influencer marketing arms within a digital agency in Dubai. Coming from both a client and agency background, he has been able to bridge the gap when it comes to influencer marketing and partnerships to deliver business results through brand collaborations.

Mike comes from an agency background where he had led social media teams at various agencies to create award-winning work for clients such as IKEA, Mercedes-Benz, PlayStation and Nestle to name a few.

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Nicolas is an experienced Communications and Influencer Marketing professional, with expertise gained throughout 10+ years in global roles for major players in the luxury and consumer goods industries. His passion lays in developing the equity of the brands he works for, and make them irresistible to consumers globally. A strong believer in the influencer marketing power to turn everything we do into something that is worth remembering and sharing.

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Raakhi’s work spans 15 years, overseeing the involvement of high profile Ambassadors across sports, music TV, entertainment, politics, digital and corporate to fundraise, advocate and communicate for global charities. For example, she is part of the team for the annual charity event, Soccer Aid, which raises millions in aid of UNICEF UK.

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Randall has a 20+ career expanding across a number of FMCG companies where he has led brand building, influencer and earned media strategies for iconic brands including Wella Professionals, O.P.I., Pantene and Head & Shoulders. Throughout his career Randall has held positions at Global HQ, Regional and Local market levels, and across multiple geographies. 

Randall spent 17 years of his career at Procter & Gamble and in October 2016 was appointed Vice President of Influencer Marketing and Corporate Affairs Coty Professional Beauty where he leads the global earned media strategy for Coty’s Professional Beauty Division and oversees external communications.

An outdoor sports and travel enthusiast, he’s always up for a good chat over a cup of coffee – especially one made with Costa Rican beans, his dear home country.

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Ruby is an award-winning influencer marketing specialist, with over a decade’s industry experience.

She began by working on behalf of global brands – well before the term ‘influencer marketing’ existed! – at a time when bloggers relied on brands to provide high-quality content opportunities for their organically-growing audiences. Ruby has watched the diversification of platforms and the pendulum swing of power: whereby bloggers have evolved into content creators – and a key component of the marketing mix – who can today charge brands for the privilege of a mention.

Ruby has extensive media agency experience across the consumer and corporate sector. Most recently, Ruby has applied her industry knowledge and expertise at the UK’s leading youth charity, The Prince’s Trust, where she is the influencer marketing lead.

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Sarah Thain is the Influencer Marketing Manager at Manchester Airports Group, a leading UK airport group. She leads the influencer marketing strategy for the group, which owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports.
Working as part of the group’s MAG-O division, which was created to drive digital innovation in airport services, Sarah is responsible for increasing awareness of key products and services through creative influencer marketing campaigns.
Prior to joining MAG, Sarah started her career at global digital marketing agency iProspect, before moving on to work for Manchester-based ecommerce brands in the fashion and sports nutrition industries. She has also been writing her own lifestyle blog for over 9 years, giving her an invaluable understanding of the influencer marketing space from both sides.

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Scott Guthrie is an independent influencer marketing consultant, conference speaker, guest university lecturer, active blogger, industry awards judge and media commentator.

He works with brands, agencies and platforms to generate meaningful results from smarter influencer marketing decisions.

Previously Scott worked as a management consultant and as Ketchum digital director – influencer relations.

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An award winning marketer with 14 years’ experience in digital advertising, William has worked agency-side on brands such as Disney, Domino’s Pizza and T-Mobile before starting his own Social Media consultancy – Will B Social Ltd – in 2018.

Currently working with McDonald’s UK & Ireland as their acting Social Media Editor-in-Chief, William has helped launch the McDonald’s UK Instagram account, developed content that’s generated positive press coverages around the world and led the brand to win The Drum’s “Best Use of Content on a Social Platform” and Social Buzz’s “Best Use of Facebook” awards amongst others.