Speakers

Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.

In 2008, Anu's career started with delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side.

Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event - PPC Live and the host of weekly podcast PPCChat Roundup

Recognise her? Well that's because she has spoken on several stages including, but not exclusive to - SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna).

Kerri Amodio is a Director of Demand Generation at Refine Labs, managing a team of talented digital marketers. She became well-versed in executing advanced digital advertising strategies across search, social and display while working in-house for several B2B tech companies. Kerri has been on the agency side for six years, aligning marketing strategy to the modern buyer's media habits. She has a keen eye for landing page optimization, a passion for data visualization and analytics, and a knack for uncovering new avenues of growth for clients.

Chris Ang is an Executive Account Manager at STAT, powered by Moz. Chris is driven to give people a voice in their communities and empower the businesses that serve them with valuable insights.

Menachem Ani is the founder of JXT Group, a US-based agency specializing in multi-channel online advertising. A digital and search marketing veteran, he brings to the table more than 20 years of experience creating high-impact growth strategies for eCommerce and service-based businesses.

His track record of delivering consistently above-average results stems from his forward-thinking mentality. A pro-automation paid media specialist, Menachem adapts the fundamentals of marketing to ever-evolving ad platforms. Today, he is one of the leading authorities on modern Google Ads tactics and campaigns, including Performance Max, Demand Gen and offline conversion tracking.

Outside of running his agency, Menachem is also a highly regarded author and speaker. He has shared insights on paid media and growing a digital agency at SMX, BrightonSEO, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Foxwell Founders, and several other publications.

Kelly Ayres is the rare marketer with an MBA, a master's in clinical psychology, and over 15 years of experience driving growth and awareness for a range of brands. Her SEO approach is rooted in rich analysis of user intent that no GPT tool can replicate. Along with producing and executing growth-friendly SEO strategies, she contributes frequently to industry podcasts and webinars from her home in New Jersey.

Jessica is not your typical SEO consultant— she redefines operational systems that make your SEO succeed. Even the best in-house teams end up in reactive mode, constantly fixing avoidable issues. That’s where Jessica Bowman comes in.

Her mission is clear: Make SEO an integrated part of everyday business operations with dozens to hundreds of people acting on SEO, so that your team spends less time fixing mistakes and more time driving new, incremental growth. The result? SEO strategies that are executed accurately and swiftly, positioning your company as the SEO pacesetter.

Jessica offers a new SEO perspective: Uncovers and optimizes the operational side of SEO. For senior SEO managers, she brings a tailored, process-driven approach not to reinvent their wheel but to make it spin more effectively across departments by streamlining workflows, boosting efficiency, and getting rid of the constant SEO fires.

In short, Jessica helps companies stop reacting to SEO fires by building a cross-functional, sustainable SEO machine that scales and spans across the organization. Through services like SEO Operations Audits, tailored cross-department training, and embedding SEO accountability into team processes, your teams will get the structure they need to do their 20% that makes 80% of the impact.

Jessica makes SEO everyone’s job—not just the SEO team’s. And, they do it proactively.

If you’re ready to elevate your SEO operations, minimize the risks that drag down results, and maximize your ROI from SEO efforts, let’s talk.

Ryan Brock is a brilliant storyteller who founded and ran the DemandJump-acquired content agency, Metonymy Media. With 12 years' experience driving measurable content outcomes for businesses in every industry, Ryan is a seasoned SEO expert. Now, as Chief Solution Officer at DemandJump, Ryan works with companies worldwide to remove the guesswork from SEO and drive industry-leading organic traffic results through Pillar-Based Marketing methodologies. Ryan is the co-author of Pillar-Based Marketing: A Data-Driven Methodology for SEO and Content That Actually Works.

Lauren Busby is the Co-Founder of Trebletree, a boutique SEO and web design agency, where she leads the SEO/web teams in building websites for SEO success. She has worked in the SEO field since 2009, driving organic growth for a range of medium-sized to enterprise-level brands, including Carpet One and Urban Air. Lauren specializes in keyword strategy, technical SEO, and large-scale franchise/enterprise SEO.

Stephanie Cheung is an Executive Account Manager at STAT, powered by Moz.  

Bruce Clay is founder and president of Bruce Clay, Inc., a global digital marketing company recognized as a worldwide leader in search marketing. Bruce began conducting SEO training in 1999, and since then more than 5,000 individuals have attended BCI’s courses internationally. Bruce wrote the first program for web page analysis, and today BCI’s proprietary SEOToolSet™ is in its sixth generation. Before founding BCI, Bruce had a long career as a technical executive with leading Silicon Valley firms. Bruce holds a BS in math and computer science and received his MBA from Pepperdine University. Bruce has authored many books, including “Search Engine Optimization All-in-One for Dummies” for Wiley. He has spoken at hundreds of marketing industry events, including Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld, Affiliate Summit, Ungagged, PubCon and ad:Tech, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, PC Week, Wired Magazine and many other publications.

Andrea Cruz is a Senior Director, Client Partner at Tinuiti. 

In the past, she led and executed demand generation programs for clients. Andrea has been responsible for driving and implementing SEM, Social Media, ABM, and content syndication campaigns on platforms including Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

Beyond paid search and social platforms, Andrea is proficient in Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, various CRMs and has previous experience in operations and B2B purchasing.

Originally from Venezuela, Andrea holds a Masters in International Business from Hult International Business School and is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

Dave Davies is the Content Team Lead at the MLOps company Weights & Biases. Dave joined Weights & Biases after running Beanstalk Internet Marketing with his wife Mary for 17 years. Dave's focus is on technical SEO, content strategy, and of course ... machine learning, and its impact on search as well as how it can be used. 

Dave is an author on Search Engine Land, as well as other industry publications. He has spoken at a number of conferences over the years from SMX Advanced and all the way across the pond to SMX London.

With over 20 years of experience in internet marketing, Dave has seen a lot of SEO strategies come and go resulting in a passion for understanding what is happening today, what's being worked on, and what this all mean for the future. How does machine learning actually impact search? What are the machines looking for? And of course, what do we as SEOs and marketer need to do in this brave new world? These are the kinds of questions Dave will be answering at this year's SMX Advanced.

As Director of Marketing at Victorious, Christina DiSomma capitalizes on her 10+ years of digital marketing experience to shape Victorious’ search and marketing strategies. With a background of powering growth by enhancing online search visibility in various sectors — including ecommerce and B2B software —  she continues to innovate and execute impactful marketing programs.

In her current role, Christina drives Victorious’s own search-first strategy, connecting marketers with SEO campaigns that empower them to build sustainable revenue growth and foster strong connections between brands and their customers.

Eric Enge has been speaking about digital marketing for more than two decades. He has keynoted many conferences including Pubcon Las Vegas, State of Search in Dallas, and Next10x. Eric is lead co-author of The Art of SEO, and also provides content to sites such as Search Engine Land, and Moz. Eric is particularly well known for the research that he publishes on key aspects of search. Eric was named 2018 Search Personality of the Year at the Drum Search Awards, 2016 Search Marketer of the Year (Male) at the Landys, and 2016 Search Personality of the Year at the US Search Awards, and Stone Temple Consulting was also named Best Large SEO Agency of the Year at the US Search Awards.

Eric is President of Pilot Holding, and was the Founder and CEO of Stone Temple Consulting (STC), a 70+ person digital marketing agency based in Massachusetts. Stone Temple was acquired by Perficient in 2018 where Eric worked for three years, and with which Eric continues to work with on many projects.

Jeff Ferguson is a passionate growth marketer and digital educator who has led the online marketing efforts for companies such as Hilton Hotels, Kimberly-Clark, InterActiveCorp, Experian and Napster.

In his current role as Head of Production at Amplitude Digital, he has worked with renowned brands such as Belkin, Billabong, CBS, eHarmony, JustFab, Manchester United, Paychex, PetSmart, Popcornopolis, The Smithsonian, Stila Cosmetics, ThriveMarket, Sony and many more.

Honored as one of PPC Hero’s “Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts” for three years in a row, Jeff Ferguson is a regular presenter at Ad:tech, AllFacebook Expo, Conversion Conference, eMetrics, Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Digital Hollywood, Online Marketing Summit (OMS) and Consumer Electronics Show (CES). He has been both a speaker and board member at Search Engine Strategies (SES).

Jeff is a columnist for Search Engine Journal, where his legendary data research projects have tipped many sacred cows of SEO and paid media advertising malpractice. 

As an adjunct professor for UCLA, Jeff teaches introductory and advanced digital marketing classes and designed the school’s first ever course on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Jeff volunteers time with the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) and Digital Analytics Associations (DAA) on both the national and regional levels, where he serves as a board member of the Los Angeles chapter.

Greg Finn is a performance-based marketer who manages global paid spend as a Google Partner. In the past, he has contributed more than 700 articles to Third Door Media. He is also on Search Engine Journal's weekly News Podcast: Marketing O'Clock.

Duane Forrester was the Vice President of Industry Insights for Yext, leading search industry outreach, evangelism and thought leadership for the company.  Previously, he was the VP, Operations with Bruce Clay, Inc, one of the oldest digital marketing agencies in the United States where he led the operations for organic and paid search, social, content and design.

Before moving to BCI, he was a Sr. Product Manager launching Bing’s Webmaster Program, focused on helping businesses improve their digital marketing efforts and was part of the team managing Schema.org. During this time, he worked through Microsoft’s SMB and startup incubator programs to advise dozens of early-stage and growth-stage startups from Coast to Coast. Previously, he was an inhouse SEM running the SEO program for MSN in the US & Americas. He's also the founding co-chair of SEMPO's In-House SEM Committee, was formerly on the Board of Directors for SEMPO and is the author of two books: How To Make Money With Your Blog & Turn Clicks Into Customers.

Duane has written for publications ranging from SearchEngineLand and DuctTape Marketing, to Entrepreneur Magazine, the New York Times and Inc. He actively advises startups and large corporations, and even spent time advising the staff who maintain the White House's websites.

Garrett French is the founder and chief link strategist of Citation Labs, a link building agency and campaign incubator. He’s also the founder of ZipSprout - Citation Labs’s sister agency focused on local marketing. He’s developed multiple link building tools, including the Link Prospector and the Broken Link Finder. He also co-wrote The Ultimate Guide to Link Building with Link Moses himself, Eric Ward. Garrett and his team lead monthly webinars on enterprise content strategy and promotion from the Citation Labs Blog.

Glenn Gabe is an SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive (GSQi) and has over 28 years of experience in digital marketing. Glenn currently helps clients with algorithm update recovery, technical SEO audits, and SEO training. During his career, Glenn has helped companies across a wide range of industries including publishing, ecommerce, health and medical, finance, startups, military, education, non-profits, real estate, affiliate marketing, and more.

Brad Geddes has been involved in PPC since 1998. He is a co-founder of AdAlysis, a PPC recommendation engine. Brad is the author of Advanced Google AdWords, the most advanced book ever written about Google's advertising program. Brad has worked with many of the world's leading companies in managing and perfecting their PPC management and workflows.  One of his trademarks has been demystifying the complicated aspects of SEM. Not one to hold secrets, Brad prefers to educate marketers on the various aspects of crafting successful marketing campaigns to ensure the success for all parties involved. 

Danny Goodwin is the Editorial Director of Search Engine Land & SMX. In addition to writing daily about SEO, PPC, and more for Search Engine Land, Goodwin also manages Search Engine Land’s roster of subject-matter experts. He also helps program our conference series, SMX – Search Marketing Expo. Goodwin has been covering search industry news and trends since 2007. He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.

Eric Hatzenbuhler manages the strategy and execution of MNTN's full funnel paid media program. Prior to joining MNTN, Eric worked for multiple advertising agencies overseeing paid media efforts for clients ranging from SMB to Fortune 500 organizations and spanning numerous industries from B2B to CPG.

Amy Hebdon is the founder of Google Premier Partner agency Paid Search Magic. She is a top Google Ads conversion expert & paid search coach with over 20 years of hands-on experience, and has been named one of the Top PPC Experts by PPC Hero and Marketing O'Clock. Her PPC marketing experience and insights make her a welcomed contributor to Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, PPC Hero, CXL, Copyhackers, Supermetrics and Unbounce. She co-hosts the free Facebook group Google Ads for Savvy Digital Marketers.

Anthony Higman is the CEO of ADSQUIRE, a digital marketing agency for lawyers. He started his career in the mail room of a large personal injury law firm in Philadelphia and rose through the ranks working in several different positions before becoming the firms paid advertising manager. Anthony then worked at another large legal marketing agency as director of paid search and SEO before starting ADSQUIRE. Anthony is a graduate of the US SBA Emerging leaders executive MBA program and was this year named as one of the top 50 most influencial PPC experts as well as a top contibutor to Search Engine Rountable. He is also a marathon runner and former private pilot. 

Ryan Jones runs the SEO practice at Razorfish where he helps large companies connect purpose to performance through SEO strategy. Ryan's background as a software engineer helps him wear multiple hats and connect stakeholders. Ryan has created several free and paid SEO tools (e.g. seodataviz.com ) and is very active in writing for SEO publications and speaking at SEO conferences. When he's not doing SEO he enjoys playing hockey, softball, cornhole (he's top 100 in Michigan) and attempting to take over the world - which he would have gotten away with had it not been for those meddling kids and their dog.

An artist and a technologist, all rolled into one, Michael King recently founded boutique digital marketing agency, iPullRank. Mike consults with companies all over the world, including brands ranging from SAP, American Express, HSBC, SanDisk, General Mills, and FTD, to a laundry list of promising startups and small businesses. Mike has held previous roles as Marketing Director, Developer, and tactical SEO at multi-national agencies such as Publicis Modem and Razorfish. Effortlessly leaning on his background as an independent hiphop musician, Mike King is a dynamic speaker who is called upon to contribute to conferences and blogs all over the world.

As a former Googler with extensive experience working alongside hundreds of eCommerce businesses, Ben Kruger now leads the marketing efforts at a prominent live-event ticket reselling platform. His approach is deeply analytical, with a strong belief in the power of AI and automation to transform businesses. He's committed to leveraging cutting-edge technologies to drive growth and deliver exceptional results.

With 15+ years of experience, Suraj is a seasoned product & project manager, technical SEO specialist and client engagement leader who loves innovation and attaining results.

As a technical SEO specialist, Suraj utilizes advanced techniques to boost online visibility and organic traffic for clients. His skills in SEO split testing and web crawling help optimize website performance and gather critical data for strategic decisions.

A proven leader in developing and launching innovative products in various industries, Suraj loves managing teams and complex projects from start to finish. He is committed to working closely with clients to surpass expectations and deliver exceptional value.

Nikki Lam is a seasoned SEO expert who has spent over a decade elevating the online presence of global brands like Adobe, Lenovo, Samsung, Under Armour, Levi’s, T-Mobile, Office Depot, American Airlines, Western Union, SoFi & more. 

As VP, Head of SEO at NP Digital U.S., she oversees the Organic Search offering, leads a large growing team of passionate search strategists, and assists in pitching and formulating award-winning SEO campaigns for NP’s growing roster of enterprise and Fortune 1000 clients.

Nikki's impact extends across the globe, as she collaborates with NP Digital's growing global Earned Media teams to ensure consistency, foster innovation, nurture collaboration, and uphold operational excellence across 19+ countries.

As a contributing author to Search Engine Land, member of the SMX Programming Committee, course instructor at the Digital Marketing Institute, speaker at brightonSEO San Diego, contributor to Neil Patel webinars, and author of ongoing social media industry update videos, Nikki is committed to engaging with the SEO community through thought leadership and open dialogue about the ever-changing search landscape.

Aaron Levy has been in the industry for nearly 20 years, leading paid media campaigns with clients ranging from Fortune 50s to startups and local businesses. He last led a 100+ person enterprise SEM team at Tinuiti, a full-service digital agency with offices across the US. Aaron's helped his team build strategies for some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Now independent, Aaron "focuses" on the years ahead while his team works days and weeks ahead looking years ahead, making sure that strategies are set up for the long term. Aaron's a frequent industry speaker and instructor at Drexel and University of Vermont, working to grow the next generation of great marketers. In his free time, he's either on the golf course, the hockey rink or in a kitchen (hopefully his own).

Forbes Magazine called Heather Lloyd-Martin “The pioneer of SEO copywriting.” Over 25 years ago, Heather helped set SEO best practices with a core group of brilliant colleagues. Since then, she’s traveled the world helping in-house and freelance writers create sustainable SEO content writing strategies. She’s a frequent speaker at industry events, the developer of the SEO Copywriting Certification training (now in its 11th year), and an instructor for LinkedIn Learning. Her coaching business, Charisma Boost, helps women confidently build their personal brands, sharpen their communication skills, and build solopreneur businesses filled with financial stability, freedom, and flexibility.

Andrew Lolk is a paid search/social marketer, speaker, and agency owner since 2010. He's the founder of SavvyRevenue: a PPC agency solely focused on managing paid search for ecommerce stores looking to scale their PPC advertising profitably. Our core opinion on PPC is that automation should drive everything at scale, and you need to understand and solve the business problem, not solely the PPC challenges, to scale successfully. We focus on the European market, and are headquartered in Denmark taking US stores across Europe. 

Melissa Mackey is Director of Paid Search for Compound Growth Marketing.  A veteran PPC marketer, she helps clients achieve maximum ROI from paid search.  Mackey contributes regularly to several industry publications, including Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, MediaPost, and AdWeek, writing on PPC strategy.  Mackey has spoken at industry conferences such as SMX Advanced, SMX Next and HeroConf.

Throughout her career, her achievements include overseeing strategy development and implementation of paid search and paid social campaigns for all types of advertisers, as well as execution and analysis of ad copy and landing page strategy.

Mackey holds a Dual BA from Michigan State University, and a Masters of Management from Aquinas College. She lives in East Lansing, Michigan with her husband and the empty bedrooms of her two grown-and-flown children.

Chris Marshall is the sales director and team lead at MNTN.

Brian Massey is the founder of Conversion Sciences LLC and author of the book Your Customer Creation Equation. His rare combination of interests and experience was developed over 30 years as a computer programmer, entrepreneur, corporate marketer, international speaker, and writer. Founded in 2007, Conversion Sciences helps businesses transform their sites through a steady diet of visitor profiling, purposeful content, analytics, and AB testing. Massey has worked with hundreds of companies to improve their online business. He is a sought-after speaker, presenting at IBM, Inbound, LeadsCon, Content Marketing World, Affiliate Summit, and others. He has written for online publications including ClickZ, Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. Massey is the host of the Intended Consequences podcast.

Fiona has over 15 years of experience in Digital Marketing across all channels but focused for the last 8 mostly on Search in her time at Conductor. She started as a Director of Strategic Accounts in New York working with both agency and direct brands across the US; and for the last four years she has been in London overseeing our European customer base as the Senior Director of EMEA. Driven by her passion for Search Marketing, she takes tremendous pride in ensuring the global brands she works with understand the importance of Search for their customer experience, their brand and their business.

James Murray is a passionate product marketer and evangelist with ten years of experience working with disruptive technology, search, big data and online analytics. He is an exceptional communicator with a strong storytelling focus and the ability to simplify complex concepts. James is a marketer, strategist, analyst and public speaker with proven ability in both creative and technical markets.

Tamara is an SEO strategist with 5+ years of experience optimizing and analyzing websites. Having worked both agency and in-house, she now enjoys helping an array of clients from SMEs to international brands.

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she researches, writes and produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Lily Ray is the Senior SEO Director & Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital (formerly Path Interactive), where she provides strategic leadership for the agency’s SEO client programs. Born into a family of software engineers, web developers and technical writers, Lily brings a strong technical background, performance-driven habits and forward-thinking creativity to all programs she oversees. Lily began her SEO career in 2010 in a fast-paced start-up environment and moved quickly into the agency world, where she helped grow and establish an award-winning SEO department that delivered high-impact work for a fast-growing list of notable clients, including Fortune 500 companies. Lily has worked across a variety of verticals with a focus on retail, e-commerce, b2b and CPG sites. She loves diving into algorithm updates, assessing quality issues and solving technical SEO mysteries.

Nils Rooijmans, a veteran in Search Marketing, AI alumni and Search Specialist by trade.
With over +20 years of experience in the field (PPC, SEO), he has helped hundreds of companies increase their revenue and profits, mostly through automations. Currently, he combines his technical, business and entrepreneurial experience running a remote search agency and is sharing knowledge on Google Ads Scripts via his personal site and newsletter.

Chris a.k.a "Captain Clarity" is a marketing expert with a flair for all things SEO. With a superpower for telling SEO jokes that actually land, Chris has steered the ship at seoClarity, crafting strategies that make Google's algorithms blush. His ability to see through the fog of digital marketing and guide brands to the top of search results is legendary. Chris’ collaborative spirit and knack for turning complex SEO concepts into digestible laughs make him a sought-after team member in any marketing endeavor.

Kevin Salat is a product marketing manager at Microsoft Advertising.

Barry Schwartz is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick sells custom web software including advanced e-commerce, custom content management systems, social networking sites, CRM applications, custom web-based business software, iPhone applications and much more.

Barry Schwartz is the founder of the Search Engine Roundtable and has covered search for over 20 years. Barry is also the News Editor at Search Engine Land. Barry hosts the Search Marketing Expo in Israel and is a speaker, moderator and coordinator at many search marketing conferences, including Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, La Red Innova Madrid, Spain, PubCon and many other marketing and technology events.

Barry is always at the forefront of the latest news and trends in search. He was also the former News Editor at Search Engine Watch and is a moderator at several search marketing forums. Barry has and currently provided an advisory role for Google, Yahoo! Search, Microsoft's Bing, and several other Internet companies and many startups. In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land and in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here. Please also see my writer disclosures and disclaimers page. Barry graduated from the City University of New York (Baruch College) in 2002, with Summa Cum Laude honors. Schwartz received several honors while in university, including Beta Gamma Sigma and the Golden Key International Honor Society.

He, his wife and children live in the New York area. Barry is often quoted and interviewed in publications such as Forbes, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today BusinessWeek, News.com, Publish and many more. He has appeared on primetime TV, specifically NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams to talk about Google Instant and on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood in regards to mobile apps. Barry has also made multiple appearances on the TWiT network shows This Week in Google and Tech News Today. He has over a decade of hands-on experience in web strategy, marketing and business optimization.

Linda Shi is a senior product marketing manager at Microsoft Advertising.

Marc Sirkin serves as Third Door Media's EVP of Product & Technology. He is a twenty+ year digital marketer with a proven track record of revenue & digital fundraising growth. He's led high-growth change at a wide range of organizations, helping companies ranging from startups to large enterprises.

Ashley Skiles is the director of corporate & community at Rollworks. She is a B2B SaaS marketer with 10+ of experience leading marketing, communications, and design projects internationally and domestically. Her background is in tech and public policy. Ashley enjoys creating structure out of chaos, executing complex logistics, and building strategic and tactical plans. 

Sarah Stemen, the founder of Sarah Stemen, LLC, started working in digital marketing in 2007 at Nationwide Insurance. Prior to establishing her own agency, she served as a valuable asset to small and mid-sized marketing agencies, providing expert consulting to help them enhance their digital marketing and paid search capabilities. Sarah is an active member of the Paid Search Association (PSA) and takes great pleasure in sharing her knowledge and insights on paid search topics through her writing and speaking engagements.

Kelly Thomas Nojaim is RVP of North America corporate sales at Microsoft Advertising.

Alexa Tierney leads the Customer Success organization at QuickFrame by MNTN, including CSM, Customer Growth and Channel Partnerships teams. QuickFrame enables brands to compete in our video-first world by transforming the way original video gets created. We believe in making video production simpler, faster, and more cost-effective, with a focus on measurable cross-channel performance.

Michael Tietje is the VP of Growth at Fluency—a leader in Robotic Process Automation solutions for the digital marketing industry. Michael has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on search and social channels over the last 13 years and holds a certificate in Full Stack Development from MIT. He has worked with large brands and agencies, leading digital operations with a focus on automation transformation for scaled digital advertising.

Mats Tolander has been doing web development since 1995 and SEO for almost as long.

He was a Director of Technical SEO at Stone Temple Consulting from 2015 until the company was acquired by Perficient in 2018.

Prior to that he was a web development manager at Staples. He has also worked at Lycos, one of the very first WWW search engines.

Elizabeth Tucker is a Director of Product Management at Google overseeing Search ranking systems and quality processes to help ensure the quality of search results. She joined Google in 2004 as a data scientist focused on measuring the user experience of Search. Elizabeth has a bachelors in East Asian studies and mathematics from the University of Oberlin, and a masters in mathematics from the University of Texas in Austin.

Frederick Vallaeys co-founded Optmyzr in 2013 to give search marketers the tools they needed to make managing pay-per-click (PPC) accounts quick and simple. A former Google executive and one of the tech giant’s first 500 employees, Fred spent close to 10 years managing and evangelizing for the AdWords (now Google Ads) product, and is best remembered for his work on Quality Score.

Fred is also an accomplished author and speaker on PPC account management, automation, and scripts — having spoken at high-profile events like SMX Advanced and Hero Conf and having published “Unlevel the Playing Field: The Biggest Mindshift in PPC History” in 2022 and "Digital Marketing in an AI World: Futureproofing Your PPC Agency" in 2019. 

He is also the host of Optmyzr’s PPC Town Hall, a live video podcast that empowers paid search professionals with the latest insight about the search channels and marketing tools. He was recognized as 2018’s SEM Contributor of the Year by Search Engine Land, top 10 on PPC Hero’s definitive industry ranking of the most influential PPC experts of 2021, and Search Marketer of the Year for 2021 by Search Engine Land.

Ben Vigneron is a seasoned marketing analyst and product analytics leader with a startup culture. Ben was listed as one of the best eCommerce PPC Experts by PPC Hero, and spoke multiple times at the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) in Europe and the USA.

With a vision to change the way marketers think and operate, Ben and his team work with leaders and organizations to bring data to the center stage, and help make more informed decisions.

After more technical training at Adobe, and years of experience with advertisers in the Bay Area at Blackbird PPC, Ben has uncovered remarkable patterns about the incremental effectiveness of paid advertising through search, programmatic, and social initiatives.

Alex Villa is the director of customer growth at QuickFrame by MNTN.  It's a video-first world, but organizations are still struggling to create enough high-performing video content to keep up. QuickFrame's insight-powered video marketplace is the answer to this challenge—unlocking unlimited video content that drives results (and comes in under budget). By tapping into a data-driven approach to production and our global network of awesome creators, you'll be empowered to do more with video, so video can do more for your organization.

Lori Weiman has been creating products for SEM and SEO marketers since 2002. She is a regular speaker at leading search, affiliate, and retail trade shows as well as a regular columnist for Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch.

Prior to The Search Monitor, Lori co-founded KeywordMax.com (now a division of Digital River, Inc.) which provides campaign optimization software to SEM marketers and agencies.

Lori started her career at Time Warner Cable as part of the team responsible for inventing on-demand television. She has held executive level positions at several early stage ventures including Click Forensics, Webquarters, and Food.com.

Lori holds a degree in business from Emory University & a J.D. degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

With 25+ years in SEO and digital marketing, James hopes he has picked up a thing or two that may be of value to others, and does his best to apply what's he's learned to the benefit of company and clients (and conference attendees) every opportunity he has.

James can be found wandering blissfully in either the backcountry or a spreadsheet of data (but usually not at the same time).

He is a life-long seeker of truth, knowledge, wisdom, and hopes to learn from you as well, because ultimately, we’re all in this together.

Christine Zirnheld (AKA Shep) is a Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Cypress North, specializing in B2B advertising. Christine also hosts Marketing O'Clock, a weekly digital marketing news podcast, where she covers the latest PPC news and updates with plenty of rants, sass, and eye rolls.