With over 15 years of experience in B2B sales, marketing, and business development, Bartosz has a strong track record in industries like Martech, Medtech, HR, and National Security. He specialises in selling complex technological solutions and deeply understands client needs and market dynamics.

As a key leader at WhitePress, Bartosz focuses on strategic partnerships and expanding the SEO market across the Nordic and Baltic regions.

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 of editing Search Engine Land articles, 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).

Dawn Anderson is the founder of SEO consultancy and digital marketing agency, Bertey.

Dawn advises leading brands on strategic SEO across multiple niches and verticals including FMCG, financial services, sports and gaming, e-commerce, lead generation, travel, marketplace, insurance, fashion, home and garden, luxury, automotive, consumer insights, and more. She is also a Northern Digital, UK, EU, Global, APAC, MENA and US Search Awards Judge as well as a UK Content Marketing Awards Judge and UK Biddable Media Judge. Dawn is qualified to Masters Level in digital marketing strategy with both a Pg Dip DigM (Post Graduate Diploma) (IDM) and a Master of Science (MSc) in (Digital Marketing Strategy) and is currently undertaking a second Master of Science (MSc) in Computer Science with Data Science.

Dawn is also an international conference speaker (UK, US, AUS, IT, FR, ES), covering advanced technical SEO, AI Search and digital marketing topics. Dawn speaks at some of the leading global search marketing conferences, including SMX Advanced, Search n Stuff, Pubcon (Las Vegas and Florida), SASCON, Brighton SEO, SEO Week (New York), SMX (London (UK) and San Jose (US), MozCon (US) and State of Search (US). She has been in SEO for almost 20 years and works with leading brands providing digital marketing and SEO strategy across many sectors.

In addition to providing ongoing SEO consultancy and support for well-known brands, enterprise and startups, Dawn is a Fellow of The Institute of Digital Marketing (FIDM) and a Member of The British Computing Society (MBCS). She also contributes to leading search marketing industry publications such as Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, The SEMPost, State of Digital, and Smart Insights. Dawn is also currently commissioned by a major academic publishing house to write 'The AI SEO Playbook'.

Andrew Beckman is the Founder of Location3, a Denver-based digital marketing agency and technology partner for franchise and multi-location brands. He started the company in 1999, right as search was taking off, and has spent the past two decades helping national brands connect the dots between SEO, paid media, and local consumer behavior at scale.

Before launching Location3, Andrew worked at DoubleClick as an international sales manager, where he opened new offices abroad and trained teams on U.S. search marketing strategies on AltaVista. Since then, his work has focused on building performance systems for multi-location brands integrating AI, local SEO, paid search, and transparent reporting into repeatable, scalable frameworks.

He has spoken at events including SMX, PubCon, SES, ClickZ Live, IFA, and upcoming POSSIBLE, and he continues to focus on how AI is reshaping local search, franchise marketing, and the way brands manage both organic and paid performance across hundreds of locations.

Rich Bradley is an experienced Enterprise SEO and AI Optimization Strategy Leader based in New York, currently serving as an SEO Director at Croud since May 2025. With more than 18 years of industry experience, he specializes in improving search visibility and channel performance for large brands.

At Croud, he leads a pod within the organic strategy department focused on delivering innovative SEO and GEO strategies for clients across the B2B, healthcare, and finance/insurance verticals.

Nate Burke is the CEO at Diginius, a leading SaaS company and largest Global Channel Partner for Microsoft Advertising in 2025, as well as TikTok's first Global Channel Partner, works with over 1,200 digital agencies across 60+ countries. Trusted by agencies and brands worldwide, Diginius empowers partners with the technology, expertise, and support needed to accelerate digital growth.

Nate has over 25 years of experience in technology, business, eCommerce and digital marketing, and has been described as a founding member and pioneer of the eCommerce and online industry. Nate has a BA in Computer Science and an MBA from the University of Alabama. He launched his first internet business in 1997 and is a two-time nominee Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Kathy Bushman has more than 20 years of experience in marketing communications, event management and marketing training. Formerly, Kathy was the director of content and training for the Digital Summit series of events where she oversaw the content development and quality of more than 20 events a year. Prior to that she was the director of training for MarketingProfs where she worked on live events, virtual events and developed marketing training programs using instructional design techniques and adult learning theory. She has also worked on industry events for other companies including the Direct Marketing Association and Penton Media.

Tom Capper heads up the Search Science team at STAT & Moz, where his research and analytical, data-heavy approach is helping to build the next generation of SEO tools. Previously, he worked as a freelance consultant, and led the London Consulting team at Distilled, advising clients on everything from technical SEO to mergers and acquisitions. Tom frequently shares his thoughts on all SEO topics on the Moz and STAT blogs, on LinkedIn, and in Moz's biweekly Top 10 SEO roundup email.

Dewey Carter is the Industry Sr. Director, Retail Global Media Sales at Microsoft Advertising.

Crystal Carter is the Head of AI Search & SEO Communications at Wix and is a Digital Marketing professional with almost 20 years of experience. Her global business clients have included Disney, McDonalds, TripAdvisor, and Tomy. An avid AI search & SEO Communicator, she writes, hosts webinars and podcasts and her work has been featured at Google Search Central, BrightonSEO, Moz, OMR, Semrush, and more.

Stephanie Cheung is a Sr. Enterprise Account Executive at STAT Search Analytics.

Jeff Clear is a Sales Executive at Optmyzr with more than seven years of experience helping digital marketers simplify and improve their work through technology. He is passionate about helping advertisers on Google, Bing, and Amazon optimize their PPC campaigns, increase efficiency, and generate more leads and sales.

Jeff holds a Google Ads certification and brings strong expertise in lead generation, providing clients with valuable insights and solutions that help them stay in control of their PPC accounts while achieving their performance goals. He also draws on his previous experience as a Paid Search Account Manager, where he managed PPC accounts across multiple industries, giving him a strong understanding of the needs and challenges marketers face in different verticals and markets.

Jen Cornwell is a leading voice in AI SEO and the Sr. Director of AI SEO Innovation at Tinuiti. With over a decade of experience in digital marketing and a track record leading a 50-person SEO team across multiple verticals, she helps brands adapt to conversational search and large language model ecosystems to strengthen organic visibility. Jen positions SEO as a key driver of cross-channel strategy, and her expertise has been featured in top industry publications including Search Engine Land, Ad Age, and SE Ranking.

Andrea Cruz is the VP of Media Strategy (B2B) at Monks.

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 Principal SEO Manager at CoreWeave - the Essential Cloud for AI , where he leads SEO across the company and its acquired brands, including Weights Biases, the platform that the leading companies using AI train on. With 17 years of co-founding and running Beanstalk Internet Marketing alongside his wife, Mary, Dave brings deep technical SEO and content strategy roots to one of the most dynamic companies in AI infrastructure. Today, his work centers on generative engine optimization and agent observability: ensuring that as AI reshapes how answers are found and how systems are understood, CoreWeave is built to be visible in both.

As an author for Search Engine Land and other top industry publications, and a seasoned speaker from SMX Advanced to SMX London, Dave brings over 25 years of experience to his work. His career has been driven by a relentless curiosity about the future of search: How does AI impact search - and is it even search anymore? What are the machines really looking for? How can AI, especially agentic AI, be harnessed to boost productivity and provide deep insights into digital marketing? And perhaps most importantly, what must SEOs and marketers do to thrive in this brave new world?

Lauren Donovan has worked in online marketing since 2006, specializing in event marketing, content management, organic and paid social media, community and reputation management, and real-time journalism.

Lauren currently serves as Director of Marketing at Third Door Media -- producer of the Search Marketing Expo and MarTech conference series and publishers of Search Engine Land and MarTech. Her professional passion is to help connect marketers from around the world with training opportunities and experiences that can help them achieve their goals.

Amanda Friedt is a growth executive, AI marketing strategist, and audience intelligence leader, and the founder of FRDTLAB and Unapologetic Leadership. She builds connected growth systems where AI-powered discovery, audience intelligence, integrated search, lifecycle marketing, and revenue operations work as one. Her focus now is the future of human and agentic marketing: how brands scale through the system without losing the human inside it.

Through FRDTLAB, her signal lab, Amanda helps transformational brands read the systems beneath the headlines and turn them into strategy, stories, and signal. Through Unapologetic Leadership, she writes and speaks on leadership, identity, and AI-era marketing for the operators, founders, and marketing leaders building what comes next.

That work is grounded in two decades of operating. She currently serves as VP of Growth for the Benigni Family of Brands, leading growth and digital strategy across a multi-brand portfolio. Before that, as CMO of Aimclear, one of the most awarded integrated agencies in the US, her leadership earned recognition from the US Search Awards, Global Search Awards, US Agency Awards, and Inc. 5000, including Integrated Campaign of the Year, Best PPC Campaign, Paid Social Campaign of the Year, and Integrated Agency of the Year.

A fixture on the national speaking circuit, Amanda has shared her work at SMX Advanced, SMX London, BrightonSEO / HeroConf, Pubcon, Engage, Zenith, and MN Search Summit. Detroit-rooted, she supports local public schools through nonprofits and teachers, and you'll otherwise find her painting, sailing Lake St. Clair, or out at live music with her kids.

Greg Finn is the Co-Founder and Head of Performance & Innovation at Cypress North, a performance-driven digital marketing agency with offices in Buffalo and Rochester, New York. With more than 20 years of experience in digital marketing, Greg specializes in paid media strategy, performance marketing, and emerging advertising technologies, overseeing large-scale advertising investments for brands across the globe.

A recognized voice in the search marketing industry, Greg has contributed more than 700 articles to Search Engine Land and also serves on the programming team for Search Marketing Expo (SMX).

Greg is the co-creator and co-host of Marketing O'Clock, a popular weekly digital marketing news podcast covering the latest developments in paid search, SEO, social media, and advertising technology. He also co-hosts It's New, a daily show alongside Barry Schwartz covering breaking news and developments in search and digital marketing, as well as Commerce O'Clock, a podcast focused on e-commerce marketing, advertising, attribution, analytics, and industry trends.

Known for his candid insights, industry expertise, and practical approach, Greg focuses on helping marketers navigate an increasingly automated advertising landscape while keeping measurable business results at the forefront.

Duane Forrester is a leading authority on the future of search, AI, and digital strategy. With more than two decades shaping the evolution of SEO, he has helped businesses, brands, and startups adapt to every major shift in the search landscape, from early webmaster tools to today’s GenAI-driven discovery systems.

Duane is the founder of UnboundAnswers.com, where he advises companies on navigating the emerging AI search ecosystem and building strategies grounded in new metrics like chunk retrieval, vector presence, and machine-validated authority. He writes regularly on his Substack Duane Forrester Decodes, where he breaks down how generative AI is rewriting the playbook for marketing, visibility, and consumer engagement.

Previously, Duane was Vice President of Industry Insights at Yext, VP of Operations at Bruce Clay Inc., and a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, where he launched Bing’s Webmaster Tools and worked on Schema.org. He has advised startups through Microsoft’s SMB and incubator programs, guided enterprise search strategies, and even consulted on the technical management of the White House’s digital properties.

A former board member of SEMPO and co-chair of its In-House SEM Committee, Duane is also the author of How to Make Money With Your Blog and Turn Clicks Into Customers. His writing has appeared in Search Engine Land, Entrepreneur, Inc., the New York Times, and other major outlets.

Today, Duane speaks globally on the intersection of AI and search, helping businesses understand not just where discovery is headed, but how to build trust and visibility in the machine layer that now mediates it.

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.

Danny Gavin is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Optidge since 2011, an award-winning Houston-based digital marketing agency where he leads a team of 30+ that provides expert SEO, Paid Search, Paid Social, and CRM services for established businesses and organizations looking for serious ROI.

He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Houston's C.T. Bauer College of Business, where he teaches Master's level classes and Executive Education on social media and search engine marketing.

In 2021, Danny launched ODEO Academy, an online training program in digital marketing for the public. He has trained 600+ students to date in graduate-level digital marketing strategies.

Finally, Danny is the host of "The Digital Marketing Mentor," an award-winning podcast he started in January 2023, where he explores his guests' history with mentorship and guiding others and delves into how these connections have affected their careers, marketing strategies, and lives.

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.

He 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 success for all parties involved.

Eli Goodman is the co-founder and CEO of Datos, A Semrush Company, a clickstream data provider. After more than two decades of strategic partnerships and leadership roles at leading data companies, Eli launched Datos in 2020 to deliver trustworthy clickstream datasets that serve the institutional finance and corporate marketplaces better.

Eli is widely recognized as an industry thought leader and authority in the realm of data licensing, having given more than 100 keynotes throughout his career.

Prior to Datos, Eli held several leadership roles, including serving as the Corporate Evangelist at Comscore for almost 10 years and voice talent within the Gartner Talking Technology media group.

Eli holds a degree in Organizational Behavior Management from Brown University.

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.

John Halfpenny, Enterprise Solutions Consultant, Semrush Enterprise With over 10 years of SEO experience across client, agency, and software sides, John helps global brands navigate complex digital ecosystems and capture strategic, cross-channel search opportunities.

Amy Hebdon is the founder of Paid Search Magic, a specialized Google Ads consultancy, and has over 20 years of experience helping brands build systems that drive real performance. Known for combining storytelling with technical rigor, she helps marketers move beyond surface-level optimizations to focus on what actually matters. Amy has been recognized as a Top Influential PPC expert and regularly contributes to Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, and SMX.

Jack Hepp is the founder of Industrious Marketing a Google Ads agency that specializes in helping businesses of all sizes generate leads with Google Ads. He has over 10 years of experience working with Google Ads across a variety of industries. Jack also hosts the podcast "Jack of All Ads | Google Ads for Local Business" covering a wide range of Google Ads topics. 

As CMO, Monica leads SOCi's marketing, SDR, and communications functions, ensuring the company stands out in an increasingly crowded marketing technology landscape. With 25 years of experience spanning digital marketing, advertising, and research, she brings a strong foundation in sales, strategy, and data analytics. Prior to SOCi, Monica served as Global CMO at GroundTruth (formerly xAd, Inc.), where she helped scale the company from an early-stage startup into an award-winning global brand.

Well regarded in the industry, Monica has received numerous accolades, including being named a Top 50 Marketer in the OnCon Awards and one of the 100 most influential North American B2B tech marketers by Hot Topics. In addition to her role at SOCi, she serves on the advisory boards of several digital marketing and technology startups across New York, Texas, and California.

Monica is also the Board President of NAMI Central Texas, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mental health advocacy, education, and support.

A veteran of the digital marketing industry and "Top 25 PPC Expert", Navah Hopkins began as an SEO in 2008, transitioning to PPC in 2012. She serves as a feedback loop for the industry into the Microsoft Advertising product team, as well as source of new updates for Microsoft Advertising resources. 

Throughout her career, Navah makes a point to give back and loves sharing lessons learned on the international speaking circuit as well as local universities. She is a frequent contributor to SEJ, SEL, SEMrush, and WordStream blogs/webinars.

In 2019, she became a founding member of the Paid Search Association, a group dedicated to empowering the next generation of PPC practitioners, as well as serving as a resource for all practitioners to learn from and share with the community.

As the SEO Program Director at Lastmile Retail, Shawn specializes in optimizing localized landing pages for Lastmile Retail's proprietary CMS to ensure clients achieve maximum visibility and performance in local search. Shawn's work directly impacts the digital success of thousands of retail locations, with a primary focus on T-Mobile’s nationwide presence.

Christian Hustle is a search strategist and Global Enablement Manager at Uberall specializing in local search, AI discovery, and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). With over a decade of experience in search marketing, he works with multi-location brands to improve visibility across traditional search engines and emerging AI-powered discovery platforms. Christian hosts the Local Marketing Beat and The Default Answer Show podcasts and runs ongoing experiments exploring how structured content, citations, and video influence AI-generated answers across platforms AI platforms.

Michael Johnson is a 12 year veteran in the link building industry, over that time he's helped design content and link building strategies for businesses ranging from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. Michael is the Founder of Resolve a boutique SEO agency that specializes in content & link building campaigns designed to drive organic search traffic relevant to their clients' buyer's journeys. 

When Michael isn't helping his team build great links, he's wrangling his 4 crazy kids and supporting his perpetually mediocre sports teams. 

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.

Madeleine Lambert is the Director of Marketing and Sales at Originality.ai, with over a decade of experience in SEO and content creation. She previously owned and operated a successful content marketing agency, which she scaled and exited. Madeleine specializes in digital PR-contact her for media inquiries and story collaborations.

Simon Lesser is a prominent SEO expert, co-founder of Dragon Metrics, and current Chief Product Officer at Semify, following the company's acquisition in late 2025. Lesser focuses on product strategy, development, and driving AI integration within the Dragon Metrics SEO platform.

Aaron Levy is the evangelist for Optmyzr, working to improve the lives of the modern advertisers through technology. He's been in the industry for nearly 20 years, leading paid media campaigns with clients ranging from Fortune 50s to startups and local businesses. Prior to Optmyzr, he led a 100+ person enterprise SEM team at Tinuiti, a full-service digital agency with offices across the US, and at Seer before that. Aaron's helped his teams build strategies for some of the most recognizable brands in the world.

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).

Kelsey Libert is a cofounder of Fractl, a top-ranked content marketing and digital PR agency known for turning data into earned media, authority, and measurable growth. Her path into SEO started early—earning her first .gov links in the early 2000s by interviewing state tourism departments, long before “earned media” was a buzzword.

Over the past 13 years, Kelsey has helped scale Fractl into the #1 content marketing agency on Clutch, working with brands across highly competitive industries to build long-term visibility through data journalism, digital PR, and conversion-focused content. Her work has driven millions of visitors, sustained ranking gains, and meaningful business outcomes, including contributing to a $65M domain portfolio acquisition and triple-digit growth for multiple clients.

Kelsey has published original research and commentary in Harvard Business Review, Inc., and Search Engine Land, and she regularly speaks at leading conferences, including SMX Advanced, BrightonSEO,MozCon, and Pubcon. In recent years, her focus has shifted to how SEO, digital PR, and AI intersect—particularly how brands earn visibility across search, social, and generative engines.

She regularly shares ongoing research and insights on LinkedIn, translating industry shifts into practical takeaways for marketers. Together with her partners, she is bringing a new generation of AI-powered workflows to market under Fractl Agents, operationalizing nearly two decades of SEO and earned media learnings.

Paul Longo is the General Manager, AI in Ads for Microsoft Advertising, a role that isincubating and taking new AI ad experiences to market. With over 14 years at Microsoft,he has led various business units and, outside of Microsoft, has experience at Publicisand L'Oreal. Paul is a frequent speaker on media, creativity, and technology, and is thefounder of the Microsoft Advertising Accessibility Community. He volunteers for non-profits like Rutgers Business School RSVP and COOP Careers.

Allie Lutin is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at CallRail.

Aashna Makin is a senior Paid Ads Specialist with more than eight years of experience. She has worked across over 150 business niches in North America, generating high-quality leads and scaling businesses to the next level of growth through paid ads on Google and Facebook.

Aashna has profitably managed over $75mm in ad spend and continues to work with companies invested in strategic marketing.

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.

Amanda Milligan is a Content and Growth Manager at Semrush with 15 years of SEO, content, and brand experience. Her expertise has been published in Entrepreneur, Forbes, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, Moz, The Next Web, and more, and she's spoken at industry-leading events, including SMX Advanced, SEO Week, MozCon, BrightonSEO, SearchLove, State of Search, and Pubcon.

Josh Muskin is VP of Sales at Level Agency, a nationally recognized digital marketing firm. With over a decade of experience guiding C-suite executives on digital strategy, media diversification, and revenue growth, Josh has helped brands across fintech, SaaS, higher education, and e-commerce achieve unprecedented results. 

He's a regular voice in the marketing community, having presented at events including CECU, MAICON, Digital Summit, DMFS NYC, and CSPEN, as well as guest lectured at Johns Hopkins and Towson University. Known for making complex digital marketing concepts accessible and actionable, Josh brings equal parts expertise and energy to every stage.

George Nguyen is a freelance editorial lead for B2B SaaS brands in the search marketing space and beyond. He is also the founder of Asians In Search. Formerly, he served as an editor at Search Engine Land and the director of SEO editorial at Wix. Prior to entering the industry, he worked as a radio personality, writer, podcast host, and public school teacher.

As Global VP of Digital PR, Beth leads award-winning teams across the US and UK. She helps brands earn trust, drive measurable visibility, and build long-term discoverability in today's AI-driven search landscape. With over 15 years of experience, she has partnered with brands including Adobe, Clarks, Marks Spencer, Sizzler, and regularly speaks at industry events across the globe, discussing performance-led PR and organic growth.

Megan Pakes is a Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft Advertising.

Megan has worked across both B2B and B2C markets, including advertising, subscriptions, and retail. She has successfully led cross-functional teams to drive meaningful growth and innovation. Known for her deep curiosity and forward-thinking mindset, she focuses on understanding customer and team needs to develop actionable strategies that adapt to evolving business landscapes.

She excels at solving complex challenges through collaboration, aligning cross-functional teams to drive execution, remove roadblocks, and deliver impactful results.

Sebastian is a seasoned marketer that weaves the people (most important), processes and technologies together to build customer-led digital experiences.  With nearly 30 years of experience both agency / tech and client side across a myriad of verticals, Sebastian continues to encourage strategies that enable marketing teams to take full control of their programs and embrace fundamental shifts in media over the last decade.

Derek Perkins is the Founder & CEO at Nozzle.  Working at an agency, Derek set out to find the best tools he could get. He needed something that could keep up with clients from Dell down to Bob's Pickles, but nothing lived up to his wildest SEO dreams. So he created Nozzle, the rank tracker he couldn't live without.

Dii Pooler is a senior paid search manager and the founder of Pooler Digital, a consultancy specializing in Google Ads and PPC strategies.

With over 10 years of experience optimizing campaigns for top platforms like Google, Meta, and Bing, she helps businesses maximize their digital advertising performance. Dii is also passionate about educating PPC professionals, offering resources and insights to help them achieve measurable success through a thriving newsletter.

Ed Poppe is a marketing leader turned founder on a mission to help brands grow smarter and faster.

After leading digital growth for brands like Tempur-Pedic, Build-A-Bear, La Quinta, and American Airlines, he founded Poppe Marketing. Poppe helps companies unlock growth through digital media, CRM, and loyalty. Poppe Marketing builds agile marketing teams composed of deep subject-matter experts, enabling brands to pivot quickly, execute with precision, and grow efficiently, with data at the core.

Ed’s clients describe him as a strategic partner and servant leader who blends big-brand experience with hands-on execution to drive measurable results.

Outside of Poppe Marketing, Ed supports early childhood education as a board member of Flance Early Childhood Center in St. Louis.

Milton Reis is the Industry Sr. Director, Advertising, Microsoft AI at Microsoft

Ben Riggle leads Channable’s expansion into North America. With 20 years in the marketing and tech industry, he’s helped organizations navigate through the dramatically changing landscape of online marketing, commerce, and social media. Over the last three years, Channable has grown market share to be the global leader in the ecommerce multi-channel management space and is constantly recognized for ease of use and high touch, local service.

Kyle Risley is the Senior SEO Lead at Shopify, where he focuses on helping merchants improve their organic search presence. Prior to joining Shopify, he managed SEO strategies for TripAdvisor and Vistaprint.

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 Sachs is a seasoned leader dedicated to helping enterprise organizations transform complex data and AI-driven search challenges into clear, measurable business outcomes. With over 14 years of experience leading global teams across Client Success, Operations, and Value Enablement, Chris specializes in building the scalable processes and governance models necessary for long-term SaaS success. At the intersection of AI search and SEO transformation, Chris focuses on "outcomes over outputs," helping brands simplify their technical strategies to create confidence through insight and drive significant ROI.

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.

Will Scott is a digital marketing pioneer and recognized authority in SEO and AI-driven content strategies. Known for coining the phrase “barnacle SEO”, he has been a featured speaker at PubCon, SMX, and Local U, sharing insights on the evolving role of AI in search and content marketing.

As CEO & Co-founder of Search Influence, Will leads a team delivering AI-enhanced SEO and data-driven digital marketing solutions for industries ranging from higher education to healthcare and hospitality. A longtime AI advocate, he helps businesses integrate AI tools for content creation, automation, and smarter SEO strategies.

With a degree in Architecture from Tulane University, Will applies strategic problem-solving to online marketing, maximizing visibility and ROI in an AI-powered world.

Andrew is CEO of LocalSEOGuide.com a leading SEO consultancy with a specialty in Multi-Location & Enterprise SEO for 10+ years. 

Andrew is editor of the Local SEO Guide blog which includes their definitive Local SEO Ranking Factors study. He has been a regular contributor to SearchEngineLand and co-founder of BayAreaSearch.org, the association of Bay Area search marketing professionals. Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the Internet.

He was a founding member of NBC’s Internet group and former GM of NBC.com. He helped start Insider Pages, a pioneering local-social search engine, which was acquired by CitySearch in 2006. 

Grant Simmons is a Senior SEO Strategist with over 30 years of experience in marketing, focusing on digital channels and emphasizing collaborative SEO consulting, analytics, content, and performance-based successes for local, national, and international companies and organizations. Grant’s experience spans various industries, including real estate, healthcare, addiction, e-commerce, senior care, technology, travel, and employment, and he often shares his expertise and insights as a speaker at local, national, and international SEO & marketing conferences. Grant is the US Ambassador for InLinks (an SEO Entity Toolkit) and Waikay (a Generative Engine Optimization & Visibility platform).

Aleyda Solis is an award-winning International SEO and AI Search Optimization consultant, speaker, and author with more than 18 years of experience.

An experienced SEO consultant specializing in International, Ecommerce, Marketplace, and SaaS SEO, Aleyda provides personalized and strategic SEO guidance to some of the world’s best-known brands. She offers SEO consultancy, training and ongoing support through her boutique SEO consultancy, Orainti, where she works with organizations ranging from multinationals to startups in highly competitive industries and complex environments that require a deeply personalized, scalable, and in-depth approach to organic search growth.

Aleyda is also an experienced speaker in English and Spanish, having presented at more than 200 events across 30+ countries, and the author of SEO: Las Claves Esenciales. She writes SEOFOMO, the most-read independent SEO newsletter in the industry, with over 40,000 subscribers, where she shares the latest SEO news weekly for free. In addition, she publishes the AImarketers.co newsletter, focused on AI in marketing, and the MarketingFOMO newsletter, covering top digital marketing news.

She is the creator of LearningSEO.io, the leading free SEO learning hub, as well as LearningAIsearch.com, which provides free AI search optimization learning roadmaps. Aleyda also hosts the Crawling Mondays video and podcast series, where she shares free SEO tips.

Awarded European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 and named one of the 10 Most Influential SEO Experts of 2022 by List Wire (USA Today), Aleyda is also the co-founder of Mujeres en SEO, the SEO community for women in the Spanish-speaking world.

Brad Stephenson brings 25 years of digital marketing experience helping organizations across North America build and scale digital growth strategies. He has worked across B2B, e-commerce, financial services, higher education, healthcare, and the arts, applying a performance mindset to complex environments.

He has led multidisciplinary client-facing teams across strategy, creative, web development, SEO, and lifecycle marketing. His background includes work with Philips, Carnegie Mellon University, and Carnegie Museum of Art, and he has served as a grants panelist for nationally recognized digital marketing grants through Creative Capital.

A frequent conference speaker, Brad delivers practical, results-driven insights and brings sharp storytelling to every facet of his work.

Heidi Sturrock is a full-funnel SEM consultant and Google Ads strategist with 25 years of experience in search engine marketing, helping ecommerce DTC brands scale without sacrificing performance or clarity. She specializes in account structure, automation, and YouTube strategy, guiding advertisers beyond platform defaults and into systems designed for long-term profitability.

In addition to working directly with brands, Heidi partners with digital agencies to support their clients by providing senior-level Google Ads strategy, audits, and insights, helping agency teams navigate complex accounts and high-stakes growth decisions. She publishes educational insights at mysemstrategist.com and speaks on modern paid media strategy and intent-driven advertising.

Chris Sullivan, Head of Growth at Previsible. With two decades of experience, Chris drives growth strategy for clients across traditional search and AI discovery experiences.

Kyle Thomas is Chief Scientist and Co-Founder of MotiveMetrics and holds a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Harvard University. He specializes in applying behavioral science and AI to enterprise search strategy and large-scale account architecture.

Chris Todd is a marketing leader and MBA with 15+ years of promoting data-informed decision-making for both agencies and in-house teams. He brings his analytical perspective to everything from campaign brainstorms to cross-functional SaaS pricing and packaging overhauls. He earned his MBA from the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business.

With a background spanning business, data and finance, Sam Tomlinson is a radically different kind of marketer – one with a singular focus of making businesses better.

This background, combined with a unique combination of analytics skills, performance marketing expertise and deep understanding of brand, allow him to challenge the status quo, see hidden opportunities, develop novel strategies and build scalable systems to capitalize on those opportunities.

In his role as EVP of Strategy & Analytics, Sam leads Warschawski’s award-winning Digital & Analytics teams in the development, execution and optimization of integrated digital campaigns and measurement strategies. Sam has established a data-driven culture throughout the agency while delivering exceptional bottom-line growth for clients through the fusion of innovative digital strategies with robust, multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Since joining Warschawski, Sam has led successful marketing communications initiatives for many of the agency’s global, national and regional clients, including Dole Packaged Foods, Biologics Consulting, Hogan Lovells, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (NYSE: CPK), KeyW (NASDAQ: KEYW), Janet, Janet & Suggs, Kabateck LLP, JMT, WSP (OTCMKTS: WSP), Sagamore Ventures, Sagamore Spirit and numerous others.

A digital native, deep generalist, and passionate innovator, Sam has a unique ability to connect seemingly disparate concepts in novel ways. His brings an unparalleled understanding of the digital ecosystem and how each component within that ecosystem can work together to create an exceptional outcome. His experience with specific platforms, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Reddit, YouTube, Programmatic/DSPs, and Amazon, and knowledge of strategic and tactical methods give him the ability to craft comprehensive strategies, execute them flawlessly and optimize them relentlessly across dozens of channels. This approach has led to successful outcomes for clients with a wide variety of industries and business models, including, B2B, B2C, B2G, DTC, SaaS, lead generation, and more.

As a thought leader and pioneer in the digital and data marketing spaces,  Sam is frequently sought out for comment and expertise. He is regularly invited to speak at major regional, national and international conferences, including HeroConf, SMX, PRSA ICON, Search Marketing Summit (AU), AMEC & The Digital Analytics Association, among others. He is regularly quoted by prominent national, regional and industry publications.

Sam is a member of the Executive Education faculty at the renowned Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, an adjunct instructor at Georgetown University and Cabrini University, and a guest lecturer at New York University. Sam is a member of the Paid Search Association Board. Sam was named one of the “Marketers of Tomorrow” by Target Marketing, a Maryland Daily Record 2020 VIP List winner one of the Top 50 Most Influential PPC Experts by PPC Hero.

In addition to his role at Warschawski, Sam is a managing partner at W Ventures, a one-of-a-kind VC and accelerator company that focuses on high growth potential companies based in or willing to relocate to or co-headquarter in the Baltimore/Washington region. As a managing partner, Sam supports portfolio management and acquisition while using his expertise in analytics and performance marketing to challenge the status quo, identify hidden opportunities, develop novel strategies and build scalable systems to capitalize on opportunities.  

Sam completed his undergraduate degree at Franklin & Marshall College, and received his MBA with Honors from Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business. Outside of work, Sam maintains a 7-handicap, is a die-hard Flyers fan and travel enthusiast.

As the Tech SEO Senior Manager at Pipedrive, Sam Torres uses her multidisciplinary background as a developer and data architect to solve complex problems at the intersection of marketing and technology.

She is known for blurring the lines between disciplines to deliver creative, high-impact technical strategies with a transparent and honest approach.

Darrell Tyler is a seasoned professional in search engine optimization, currently serving as Senior Manager of Organic Growth at CallRail

He helps businesses leverage proven, results-driven SEO strategies to generate more leads, drive in-store traffic, and increase overall revenue.

Through one-on-one consulting, group coaching, and hands-on SEO services, he works with clients to uncover effective ways to grow their business using search engines like Google, YouTube, and Bing.

Since 2014, he has supported businesses across a variety of industries in achieving real, measurable results—helping them attract new customers and generate consistent leads through SEO.

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.

Martha van Berkel is the co-founder and CEO of Schema App, a semantic technology company that helps enterprise brands control how they are represented in AI and search. By building a semantic data layer, Schema App enables organizations to improve visibility, protect their brand, and drive more efficient organic growth.

She focuses on helping marketing teams navigate the shift from traditional SEO to AI-driven discovery by establishing a structured source of truth for their content.

Prior to Schema App, Martha spent 14 years at Cisco Systems leading global online support strategy. She holds a degree in Applied Mathematics and Engineering, attended MIT for Innovation and Strategy, is a mother of two, and an avid rower.

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

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.

Purna Virji is an AI strategist, keynote speaker, and founder of Agent-Led Growth, where she helps organizations turn AI from experimentation into measurable business impact.

Most recently, she led AI strategy and go-to-market initiatives at LinkedIn, following global marketing leadership roles at Microsoft. Across both companies, she worked at the forefront of AI commercialization, helping enterprise teams navigate the shift from emerging technology to real-world adoption.

Purna is best known for her work on AI ROI, agentic AI, and the future of AI-powered customer experiences. Her frameworks on quality lift, capability unlock, and AI-driven growth have helped leaders rethink how they evaluate the business value of AI beyond simple productivity metrics.

A bestselling and award-winning author of High-Impact Content Marketing, Purna has keynoted in 20 countries and been featured in publications including The Drum, Adweek, Search Engine Land, and The Next Web. She has been named Content Marketer of the Year, Search Personality of the Year, and an Adweek Young Influential.

When she's not speaking or advising teams on AI strategy, you'll usually find her gardening, making an ambitious mess in the kitchen, or drinking an unreasonable amount of masala chai.

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.

Bob Wood is a Senior Account Executive director of sales at Ringba, a call tracking and analytics platform. They provide enterprise grade call tracking to businesses, pay per call networks, agencies and performance marketers of all sizes.

Susan Yen helps teams use paid search as a decision-making engine — not just a reporting channel. Working in consulting and freelance capacities, she combines growth advisory with hands-on platform management to align paid media with real business outcomes.

She partners with marketing, sales, and executive teams to guide investment, testing, and scalable growth strategies with clarity and intention.

Susan is a frequent speaker at HeroConf and SEMpdx and a guest on PPC-focused podcasts, where she shares practical insights on intent, relevancy, and building paid media programs teams can trust — and scale.