Speakers

Menachem Ani is a digital advertising expert with over a decade of success developing high-impact marketing strategies for online retailers and lead-generation clients.

Enterprise SEO in-house has been putting food on Jessica Bowman's table since 2002. She's the trusted advisor for some of the biggest brands in the world and quickly mobilizes teams company-wide to start taking action on SEO within days from developers to product managers to merchandisers. Jessica created the only online, enterprise-level company-wide SEO training uniquely designed for large corporations to mobilize an SEO army across all roles, company-wide. Jessica founded SEOinhouse.com, a consultancy focused on doing SEO in-house and she literally wrote the playbook on doing SEO at a large company.

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.

Connor Carreras is an experienced leader in go-to-market and customer success roles, particularly in B2B SaaS companies. She is passionate about connecting users to resources based on their product activities and using product usage data to define when customers are ready for expansion. Connor also has experience managing strategic customer accounts and developing CS processes to support a high-touch, consultative motion.

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.

Cory Collins works in strategy development at Page One Power. Cory is a writer, runner, SEO strategist, beer enthusiast, and lives with his dogs and wife in Pullman, Washington. Cory's super power is eternal curiosity.

Andrea Cruz recently joined Tinuiti as a  Director of Client Strategy.

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 Awareness 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.

Cathy Edwards is a VP for Google Search, where they head up product and engineering teams building the future of search. Cathy has spent the last 15+ years working in search, having joined Google through the acquisition of Undecidable Labs in 2016.  Previously, Cathy headed up search for Apple after their company, Chomp, was acquired in 2012. Cathy has also worked in various product leadership roles at companies including Telstra, 3Jam and Friendster. Cathy holds a B.C.M. in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics and a diploma in Linguistics from The University of Western Australia.

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.

Melissa Fach is the Lead SEO Content Manager for Kelley Blue Book & Autotrader. She has been in the SEO field for 17 years. While owning her own consultancy, she worked for several industry companies focusing on optimizing content and ensuring articles about SEO were factual. Melissa has worked as an SEO editor for Semrush, Moz, SEJ, and AuthorityLabs. She also worked at Pubcon for 5 years as their Community Manager.

Shelly is the current Director of SEO at Credit Karma. Before CK, she was the Sr SEO Product Manager at Cox Automotive, Autotrader, and KBB.com.

Shelly is also a proud Brand Ambassador for powerhouse SEO Tool Company, Semrush, and a former Community Manager who helped found their Facebook Community- the Semrush Allstars.

She started working in web development over 21 years ago, and shortly after, her obsession with SEO began. Shelly is a coder at heart, enjoys building WordPress sites, and specializes in Technical SEO and auditing. Shelly has worked with tons of different niches and companies of all sizes- from small local businesses, E-commerce driven brands, High-Traffic Publishers, and Food & Lifestyle Bloggers all the way up to Enterprise in-house and consultancy.

David Farkas is the founder and CEO of The Upper Ranks, a company focused on building quality, relevant links.

He feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to sharpen his link building skills with his friend, the late Eric Ward, who not only taught him the tools of the trade, but also imparted his code of ethics, and his knack for achieving results.

"David’s team at The Upper Ranks follows the right approach to building links ethically without cutting corners. This is the approach that has always worked for me and will continue to stand the test of time." - Eric Ward

With over 13 years in the field, he's helped hundreds of SEO agencies, publicly traded companies, startups, and more increase their online presence with his link building services.

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.

Julie Friedman Bacchini is the president of Neptune Moon, LLC. In the PPC game since literally the beginning, she has truly seen it all. She and her blog appear regularly on many top influencer lists, including the PPC Hero Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts. She has presented on PPC topics locally and at industry events such as Hero Conference and SMX East. Julie is often a sought-after source for PPC commentary. A frequent industry webinar and podcast guest, Julie is also the host and Managing Director of PPC Chat – a very active industry hashtag, weekly chat dedicated to paid search topics and community - on Twitter.

When she’s not working or tweeting, she is hanging out with her husband, daughter and crazy dog and probably enjoying some wine.

Glenn Gabe is an SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive (GSQi) and has over 25 years of experience in digital marketing. Glenn currently helps clients with algorithm update recovery, technical SEO audits, SEO for website redesigns and migrations, and SEO training. During his career, Glenn has helped companies across a wide range of industries including publishing, e-commerce, health and medical, finance, startups, military, education, non-profits, real estate, affiliate marketing, and more.

Jenna Galardi has more than a decade of experience helping businesses grow online. Whether the business is a startup or a Fortune 100 company, they rely on Jenna’s expertise as a growth accelerator. From award-winning website design and development to inbound marketing tactics of search-engine-optimization, content creation, pay-per-click, email marketing, social media and influencer marketing—she loves connecting businesses to the right customers online. In her current role as Director of Omnichannel Growth at Feedonomics, she focuses on helping merchants strengthen their online presence and adopt social commerce, marketplaces, and product feed optimization solutions to scale their growth. Jenna is proud to be a strategic resource to her customers and partners.

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. 

Gil Gildner is the co-founder of Discosloth, a boutique PPC agency focused on ecommerce and SaaS. He is the co-author of the bestselling textbooks Becoming A Digital Marketer, used in dozens of universities across the globe, and Building A Successful Micro-Agency. He has traveled to over 50 countries, and tries to add more each year.

Danny Goodwin is Managing Editor 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. Prior to joining Search Engine Land, Goodwin was Executive Editor at Search Engine Journal, where he led editorial initiatives for the brand. He also was an editor at Search Engine Watch. 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.

Ali Haeri leads all marketing and communications efforts at MNTN. Ali is also an instructor at UCLA Extension, teaching marketing and advertising courses in the Business & Management certification program. Previously, Ali served as principal product designer at Symantec working on the Norton Security line of consumer software. Prior to Symantec, Ali oversaw digital marketing for the Digital Media Services division of Verizon.

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 nearly 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.

James Hebdon is an accomplished digital marketing strategist with over 12 years of experience in the industry. Currently serving as CTO of Paid Search Magic and co-host of the Facebook Group 'Google Ads for Savvy Digital Marketers', he is a sought-after speaker and consultant on the intersection of data science, machine learning, AI, and paid search marketing. James has worked across agencies and in-house with a variety of clients in industries across real estate, healthcare, retail and finance.

He helps clients achieve their marketing goals through data-driven strategies that drive leads and revenue. He also works with organizations to ensure their data is consistent and their reporting effective so they can make the best possible decisions for their companies. With a passion for helping businesses succeed, and a focus on disruptive and innovative technologies, James is driven by the cutting edge of digital marketing trends and technologies.

With over 15 years of experience in digital marketing and a five-year-in-a-row speaker at Hero Conference, Cory Henke is no stranger to the importance of finding creative strategies for online engagement. He’s an expert in organic and paid advertising, specifically YouTube, which has helped advertisers scale through the 5-year-old ad agency Variable Media. He specializes in data visualization to help bring advertising data to life and provide immediate actionable results to clients and agencies.

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 manages the strategy and execution of paid media campaigns, as well as helping brands build relationships with profitable partners and customers.

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.

Greg is a Digital Marketing Manager with a focus on lead generation and branding. He is passionate about helping businesses efficiently grow their businesses using various online advertising tactics. He was named one of Marketing O'Clocks top 50 most influential PPCers in 2022. He graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Advertising. Outside of work, he coaches Water Polo and plays Pickleball with his wife, Chloe. You can find him on twitter at @PPCGreg.

Sathya Krishnamurthy brings over 17 years of experience in product management and strategy, new product launches and business ownership to Milestone. He has an exceptional record of achievements in defining, delivering, and growing enterprise-software products in startups and mid-tier companies.

Sathya has displayed strong business ownership by bringing global teams to deliver strong product results and has mentored and managed global product management and engineering teams in US, Asia and Europe.

Prior to joining Milestone, Sathya worked for such companies as reputation.com, Microsemi and Zynga. Sathya has an MBA from Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management and an MS in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Kayle Larkin is a search marketing strategist with 15 years of experience making analytics easy to understand and actionable. Through her YouTube Channel "Analytics In Minutes," as well as contributions to Search Engine Journal and Ahrefs, Kayle helps marketers and business owners demystify analytics.

Melissa Liu is a seasoned digital marketing expert with over a decade of paid search experience. She started her career in NY working at several holding companies supporting brands like Coca-Cola, Aetna, and GSK. She quickly climbed the ranks and became a director within 5 years. Having worked in and developed performance media solutions in the USA, New Zealand, Australia, and China, she can offer valuable insights across countless markets and verticals. Her exceptional ability as an artist also helps her to inject creativity into a specialism that can often be mechanical, driving business growth and compelling results for her clients.

Melissa Mackey is the owner of Beyond the Paid.  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 Create 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.

Elizabeth Marsten is the VP, Commerce Media Strategic Services at Tinuiti, where she works with teams in advancing cross-functional strategic enterprise services through program development, advertising and sales support on emerging marketplaces, such as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Instacart, Kroger and Criteo Retail Media. She is also responsible for delivering a holistic ecommerce strategy across these channels in product and services.  With more than 16 years of ecommerce and digital marketing experience, Elizabeth is a noted industry expert and has spoken at many of the leading marketing conferences in North America and is also a regular contributor to AdWeek on retail media. When she’s not sharing her professional expertise, Elizabeth likes to practice Kendo, a Japanese martial art.

My years of experience in software engineering and digital advertising have led me to develop solutions that have helped change the way global enterprises and brands operationalize advertising.

Prior to co-founding Fluency, I worked at automotive digital marketing leader and disruptor Dealer.com (now part of Cox Automotive) for 10 years. While there, I led the development of the company’s proprietary advertising platform at a time when the automotive industry was only beginning to digitize their marketing tactics. Our team proudly lead the company, and industry, in the space of digital advertising, and by the time I transitioned from Dealer.com, the company’s platform delivered more than $1 billion in ad spend.

As a nationally recognized expert on the subject of digital advertising, I often provide large-audience presentations and lead discussions at top tier industry events and at Google campuses.

With a background in client relations, sales and account management, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the auto industry’s biggest brands for their marketing and advertising needs.

In 2008, I joined Dealer.com as a Key Accounts Advisor, and over the next decade grew into senior leadership roles in Sales, Operations and Strategic Accounts.

During my career at Dealer.com, I was part of the major account sales team and handled some of the largest accounts in automotive as Area Vice President of Strategic Accounts. I leveraged my successful track record in sales and team leadership to expand into Operations. As the Senior Director of Advertising I oversaw Client Experience and Operations for the $250 million advertising business.

Most recently, I've co-founded Fluency, a next generation advertising automation platform.

Sharon Mostyn is a nationally recognized authority on marketing optimization throughout the customer lifecycle. Speaking at events for Maryland Nonprofits, AMA Baltimore, MarketingProfs, and Internet Retailer, as well as several MediaPost Insider Summits, continues to enhance her reputation in the marketing field. She gives back to the community through her efforts as a Marketing Subject Matter Expert for SCORE Southwest Florida and on the board of Lead4Life.

Over her 30+ year career as a marketing professional, Sharon has worked with Fortune 500 companies, mid-sized firms, start-ups, and nonprofits. Today, she is CEO of the Mostyn Marketing Group, a Google Partner advertising agency that specializes in Analytics, SEO/SEM, Email Marketing, and Social Media.

The Mostyn Marketing Group team has decades of experience providing marketing strategy and implementation which uniquely positions Sharon and her team to understand the ins and outs of managing a marketing budget to provide the best return on investment across all channels. Whether it’s launching a full-scale marketing program, performing a strategic analysis of your marketing activities, or implementing marketing tactics, Mostyn Marketing Group can help your marketing initiatives succeed.

Britney Muller, Founder of Data Sci 101 and a seasoned Marketing and Machine Learning (ML) Consultant, has carved out a unique niche in the industry with roles such as Marketing Manager at Hugging Face and Senior SEO Scientist at Moz. Her deep passion for ML and artificial intelligence fuels her work, particularly her talent for breaking down complex tech concepts into understandable terms for non-technical people. With her blend of expertise, industry experience, and knack for communication, Britney is a compelling speaker, offering actionable insights on the intersection of marketing and technology.

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.

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.

Sara Resnick is the Global Head of Organic Growth & SEO at Shutterstock where she leads organic channel initiatives while optimizing the integrated customer acquisition strategy.  Having worked in marketing for more than 19 years, Sara's well-rounded experience spans a variety of industries ranging from e-commerce and music, to television and publishing. Prior to joining Shutterstock, Sara was the Vice President of Enterprise SEO & Partnerships for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. where she led the organic search efforts across their Family of Brands including top gifting brands 1-800-Flowers.com and Harry & David.  Sara also held marketing roles at America's flagship PBS station WNET, Music Sales & G. Schirmer, and Sony Music. In 2021 Sara was listed as one of Brand Innovators' 40 Under 40 Honorees, a Women2Watch in Business Disruption by Remodista, and is an active member of CHIEF.  

Kya Sainsbury-Carter leads the advertising team at Microsoft and is responsible for building and scaling Microsoft’s search, native, display, video, retail media and partnership offerings with more than $18 billion in annual revenue. With employees around the globe, the Microsoft Advertising team under Kya empowers monetization for Microsoft, key partners and the open web.

Kya has been with Microsoft for more than 16 years, all in the advertising business. She has played a number of leadership roles across Sales, Strategy, Operations, and Partner Management functions and across all channels and customer segments. Kya has built her brand on bridging from strategy to execution, synthesizing the complex into actionable, high-impact collaboration and servant leadership.

In recent years, in her role as VP of Global Partner Sales, Kya led the transition of Strategic Search Sales back from Yahoo, built up the 3P business in partnership with BD and Engineering, served as the business lead on the Xandr and Netflix deals, and has played a leadership role in Microsoft’s LGBTQ+ employee resource groups. Kya is a passionate people leader, known for cultivating productive and trust-based relationships, and for bringing humor and kind, direct communications to all she does.

Prior to Microsoft, Kya held roles in client service, product management, and ecommerce and was involved in the early days of what is now known as cloud computing. Kya also worked as a financial analyst and a restaurant manager. She remains a committed Deadhead and a passionate international traveler.

Today, she lives in Bellevue, WA with her husband of 25 years, Neil. Kya is the proud mama of two beautiful, kind, smart sons – Mason (21) and Burch (18). She earned her MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and her undergraduate degree from University of Arkansas.

Early in my life, I had a strong passion for culinary arts and restaurant operations. I decided to go to culinary school and then hospitality management school at Penn State. I was able to travel the country, meet amazing people and hone my management skills over a 17-year career. I was always told that I should be in sales and 2020 seemed like the perfect year to make a change! Now I am able to provide b2b companies with tech-driven marketing solutions focused on automation and conversions.

Michael is an experienced, hands on software executive, currently building incredible new Bing experiences and high performing teams at Microsoft. Endlessly curious, incredibly persistent and always enterprising.  He enjoys experimenting at the crossroads of machine learning and user experience to improve lives and drive strong business results.

Laura Schiele, Head of Performance Marketing at Jordan Digital Marketing, has nearly a decade of experience in paid media strategy and execution in both agency and in-house accounts and uses advanced analytics skills to scale growth within efficiency goals across Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and more. Laura manages a large team of paid media experts remotely from her home in Burlington, VT.

Jes Scholz is a marketing & SEO consultant specialising in the future of digital. Working for the Swiss media company Ringier as their Group CMO, she leads teams that support news and marketplace brands across Europe & Africa.

Currently based in San Francisco, Christina Schummer leads marketing for the Advertising Partner Program at Yelp, helping to evolve the company's network of digital agency partners to over 500 (and growing!) members in the past few years. A career-long marketer with experience at a wide range of brands across CPG & tech, she is both knowledgable and passionate about finding impactful ways to connect the right customers to the right businesses.

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 16 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.

Aleyda Solis is an SEO consultant and founder of Orainti -- a boutique SEO consultancy, speaker, and author. She shares the latest news and resources in SEO in the #SEOFOMO newsletter and Digital Marketing in #MarketingFOMO, SEO tips in the Crawling Mondays video series, and a free SEO Learning Roadmap called LearningSEO.io. European Search Personality of 2018, she's also co-founder of Remoters.net, a remote work hub featuring a free remote job board, tools, guides, and more to empower remote work.

Duane "DJ" Sprague is a conversion rate expert, and a Certified Behavioral Design Coach by the Online Influence Institute, The Behavioral Design Academy, the Mindworx Academy, and a member of the Baymard Institute and the Interaction Design Institute where he studies the impact of UX on CRO.  

In the role of CMO at Shopper Approved (a Google Review Partner), he works with thousands of ecommerce websites to improve their SEO and CRO. 

As CMO of a billion-dollar national franchise, he leveraged the power of social proof and online reviews to improve SEO and accelerate growth, as he developed and managed a comprehensive online reputation management strategy that spanned nearly 200 websites. 

Duane holds a Master's degree in Integrated Marketing, and received the 1st Place Gold Award in global marketing competition. 

Greg Sterling is the VP of Market Insights for Uberall. He is a recognized expert on a range of digital marketing topics and a contributing editor for Search Engine Land. Previously, Sterling was VP of Strategy for LSA (now Localogy). Before that he held various analyst and executive roles at Opus Research, The Kelsey Group, Allbusiness.com and TechTV. Sterling is also a former attorney. 

As the VP of Marketing & Growth at Victorious, Laurel Stewart plays a pivotal role in developing effective growth strategies that drive revenue and enable the award-winning SEO agency to scale. Thanks in part to Laurel’s vision, Victorious has secured a spot in the top 100 of Inc. Magazine’s list of Fastest Growing Companies in California for three consecutive years.

While Laurel’s contributions help Victorious grow as an agency, they also amplify the impact of the company’s mission to help other businesses thrive in search. Victorious’ growth has empowered the next generation of marketing leaders to launch, scale, and refine their SEO strategies effectively. Through their partnerships with Victorious, hundreds of marketers have discovered untapped audiences and driven compounding returns for their own businesses.

Laurel’s success at Victorious is grounded in her extensive experience in the B2B software industry. She played an instrumental role in shaping and executing global marketing programs at software testing and research companies like Parasoft and GrammaTech, focusing on marketing and launching innovative software testing solutions for embedded devices and enterprise software systems.

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.

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.

Julia Vyse is a Digital Director for iProspect Canada - West Coast, aiming to bring harmony to large-scale programs where search, paid social and other PPC platforms can often silo away from other types of media.

She has spent her career focused on performance media for large enterprises of all kinds.

Timothy Warren is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of the Helium family of brands, including Helium SEO, Helium Interactive and Venture Automotive.  He serves as the President and CEO of Helium SEO, which is a technology driven digital marketing agency that provides data driven digital marketing and leverages AI and Machine Learning to provide superior SEO results for mid-sized and enterprise businesses.  Helium SEO has 50+ employees throughout 15 states and is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH. Helium SEO was recently named the 5th fastest growing company in Cincinnati, the 10th largest Marketing and Advertising Agency in Cincinnati, and ranks #679 on the Inc 5000 list of fastest growing companies.  Timothy travels often to speaking events and loves speaking & training audiences on SEO and digital marketing methods that are new and driving results. 

Timothy was a medical student at Ohio University who left medical school in 2008 to pursue his dreams of being an entrepreneur.  He gravitated to advertising sales and led and grew sales teams for corporate America before starting his own agency in 2013.  In 2013 he founded SEO Exposed with his wife and business partner, and together they grew the company to one of the leading digital agencies in the Midwest before being acquired by Skylight Partners in 2016.  Soon thereafter he left and founded Helium, which is where he is active today.  When he is not working in his companies Tim is either chasing his three kids around a park in Cincinnati or riding his motorcycle.  In his spare time Tim enjoys real estate investing, weightlifting, fitness, angel investing, and learning new things. 

Tanner Zoromski is a SEO Manager with 4 years of experience across ecommerce. Tanner is well known for innovative technical solutions as well as cross channel collaboration aimed at driving incremental growth. He has a degree in History from the University of Wisconsin Madison, as well as a certificate in business.

Currently, Tanner is leading a team on several enterprise level sites and assisted in successful site migrations, coordinated technical releases, and assisted in non-brand revenue growth. His experience has primarily been centered around retail, ensuring that SEO strategies are holistic and can drive KPIs across all levels of the business. 

When Tanner is not SEO-ing, he enjoys running marathons or catching waves on the California coast. Tanner is committed to data driven success and strives to help other team members grow in a positive working environment.

Jon Zucker is Senior Product Marketing Manager at MNTN.