Judges 23

Janine has over 20 years’ experience in marketing, communications and business development across commercial and non-profit sectors, most recently as Marketing & Communications Director at the National Football Museum and Head of Marketing & Business Development with the Liverpool FC Foundation. She has also held roles with Liverpool ONE, The Florence Institute Trust, The Beatles Story and Visit Liverpool.

Carl Thomson is Public Policy Manager at Airbnb. Previously, he was a director at Whitehouse Communications and Interel, and an Associate Partner at Dentons Global Advisors. He was a member of the Association of Professional Political Consultants management committee, and won the 2021 PRCA Best Crisis and Issues Management Award.

David Schulhof is a results-driven marketer with 15+ years’ experience across multiple industries from ecommerce to charities to logistics and technology. As Director of Digital at The PHA Group, David supports organisations in driving growth and has worked with brands of all shapes and sizes.

James is MD and owner of M+F Health, an independent, integrated health and wellbeing communications and public affairs agency. Establishing the agency in 2017, it broke into PRWeek Top 150 PR consultancies table for the first time this year and was ranked 7 in the newest agencies to enter the table.

Industry veteran Kate Addy has spent two decades leading iconic comms campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands. Her innovative work has landed multiple award-wins, including several PRCA Awards. As managing partner at Ready10, one of the UK’s top 50 consumer PR agencies, she is responsible for agency growth and its client service offering, as well as leading PR for the likes of McDonald’s, BrewDog and Youth Music.

In her role as Group MD Shelley is responsible for the day-to-day operations at The PHA Group, working in partnership with Stuart Skinner to ensure the continued growth and development of the agency and its people. A Consumer & Third Sector PR specialist with a passion for creating a great workplace, Shelley drives the agencies People & Culture initiatives ensuring the agency supports and rewards all employees.

Lauren joined Third City as a graduate trainee in 2012 as the agency’s first full-time employee and has since worked her way up to Partner. Lauren heads up multiple accounts including The Donkey Sanctuary, Bupa and HomeServe – delivering a multitude of award-winning campaigns.

Fiona joined Brands2Life in 2010 and has over a decade of experience in developing and executing award-winning communications programmes. She currently works on clients including Cognizant, Darktrace, Matillion and UiPath on a range of digitally-integrated and more traditionally media-focused campaigns.

As MD of Business & Technology at Brands2Life, Fiona is responsible for the development of her clients’ communications and marketing communications strategies and their success. With strong contacts in the media and influencer space, Fiona is hands-on in road-testing key messages and has a knack for spotting a good story that will resonate.

Fiona has worked on a range of brands, from start-up to big brand names across many sectors – including T-Mobile, Cognos / IBM, Qlik, Ocado Technology and others. She has an MA from the University of Cambridge, is fluent in French and German and also looks after the Brands2Life Global network of international partners within her remit as Head of Global.

Seb is joint-Managing Director of Hope & Glory, the most awarded consumer PR agency in the UK last year. A proud consumer brand generalist, he has led work for the likes of Meta, Samsung, Barclays, Guinness and Amazon over his 17 years in the comms industry, picking up lots of industry awards along the way.

Alongside creating work and campaigns that earn attention, he has a keen focus on developing individuals and teams within an inclusive and open culture.

Seb is also a very proud father of two, a Liverpool supporter and has an ever-present passionate relationship with music.

Laura spent ten years as a news editor for Al Jazeera English, BBC, ABC News, and APTN. She also brings big agency PR experience from both global and boutique agencies in London and Dubai, and has been listed for three consecutive years in the PRWeek UK’s Power Book. Laura is a luxury specialist, but also boasts corporate communications experience. She advocates a broader approach to public relations with a forté in partnerships and events, which supports a client’s business development.

Her experience spans all sectors, primarily focused on luxury lifestyle, real estate and design, hospitality and travel including brands such as Diageo, Quintessentially, Riva, Ferrari, Victor, Miele, Ritz-Carlton Residences Marrakesh, The Chedi Luštica Bay, and Saudi Space Agency to name a few.

She is a previous British Ski Champion and won the title of BJTC Young Journalist of the Year. She is also director for sister company Mercury Yachts, and a brand ambassador for 12 Hay Hill.

Precious Nwachukwu is currently a full-time MBA candidate at The University of Edinburgh Business School. Prior to that, she was a Lead Consultant at Blackhouse Media, a Public Relations and digital communications agency, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. She led a portfolio team overseeing reputation management for Nigeria’s largest telecommunications company.

Prior to joining BHM, Precious had spent close to a decade working on the Corporate Communications teams at Sterling Bank, Helios Towers among others.

She is a graduate of Biological Sciences from the University of Lagos and co-chair of the PRCA Scotland NextGen Committee.

Samir is the Corporate Affairs and Communications Manager for Northern Europe at the Kraft Heinz Company. He has over ten years of experience working across corporate communications and corporate affairs providing counsel for multinationals, charities, governments, and NGOs globally.

Andy is Assistant Director for External Affairs at Universities UK International (UUKi) and leads UUKi’s campaigns, marketing and communications activity. He recently led his team to win ‘Best Use of Content Marketing in a Campaign’ at the PRCA Awards in April 2023 for UUKi’s #TwinForHope campaign.

Deputy MD of Citizen Relations, Jules is an agency leader who feels passionately about creating a mentally healthy workplace. One where people can enjoy delivering great work that triggers action. To that end, Jules leads Citizen’s global Wellbeing Ambassadors and sits on the agency’s global DEI committee.

Her industry experience spans a host of sectors across corporate, b2b and consumer audiences with a bent towards technology and FMCG. In addition to focusing on agency growth, client service and people development, Jules leads the servicing of Citizen’s P&G business and has built the agency’s successful influencer marketing offering.

Marilyn Alexander is the UK Communications Director at American Express. Marilyn’s remit includes Brand, Experiences and Consumer PR as well as influencer activity. Recent campaigns Marilyn has led include Amex’s sponsorship of The Championships, Wimbledon and summer music festival  BST Hyde Park, as well as a launching a content creator led TikTok campaign to support the company’s brand strategy.

Mo is Senior Communications Manager at Pernod Ricard UK, a leading global supplier of premium wine and spirits. Mo began her PR career agency-side at various consumer lifestyle agencies including Jackie Cooper PR, Fever and Mischief working across a mix of FMCG clients, before moving in-house. At Pernod Ricard UK, she leads on all external communications across corporate, brand and consumer comms.

As a strategic communications leader, Matt thrives when collaborating with individuals, teams and organisations to seek out and share irresistible stories.

He believes transformative communications is born where a clear proposition meets the insight necessary to craft outstanding creative content.

Matt’s overseas experience taught him a deep appreciation for diversity in its many glorious forms, how to plan for and achieve audacious results and how to embrace opportunity as circumstances change. He’s positive, occasionally funny, and respectfully challenges the status quo in search of continuous improvement.

A fascination for technology and communication has fuelled Matt’s career in public relations enabling him to tell stories that have captured imaginations, employees, investment and growth. He enjoys working with creative teams in a dynamic and fast-paced environment. Bringing order to chaos and maintaining a cool head and steady hand, he reassures the team while achieving the mission.

Hollie has a Masters Degree in International Public Relations and joined Liquid five years ago after working on a number of high-profile consumer clients including Comic Relief and National Trust Wales. At Liquid Hollie leads on activity for our food, culture and lifestyle clients and is currently based in Brisbane, Australia delivering work for our international client Maple from Canada. Hollie was named as one of PR Week UK’s 30 under 30 in 2020 and is a founding board member of PRCA Australia.

Creative Entrepreneur, Co-Founder and Brand Growth Partner at Made By Giants recently awarded Small Consultancy of the Year @PRCA Dare Award, Gold Award @Transform Europe, Best Start-Up Agency @Global Social Media Awards.

Trudi is a Director at PR and digital marketing agency 8020 Communications. Trudi leads 8020’s travel, travel tech, commercial airline and private aviation accounts. She has worked with some of the industry’s most prominent tour operators, sustainable travel companies, resorts and hotels, airlines, city marketing and corporate travel management companies.

Trudi has also worked in Ghana as the PR manager for sustainable development charity Raleigh International, and at national youth charity The Prince’s Trust, with responsibility for Party in the Park and the Urban Music Festival, as well as The Trust’s football and celebrity Ambassador programmes.