Meet the judges

Our distinguished panel of judges cover a wide range of expertise from marketing, education, technology, sustainability and more to enable them to review and score each competition entry

Judges will meet in person to debate and discuss each entry. To find out more about this year’s panel see below.

Steve Dobson

Chief Executive, Unusual Hotels of the World

When Steve Dobson co-founded Unusual Hotels of the World in 2004, he uncovered the opportunity to attract millions of visitors to sleep somewhere with a story. With a background in marketing, he advises and inspires property owners to craft compelling stories that captivate audiences around the world. From treehouses to caves, planes, trains, churches, igloos and prisons - even underwater – the most extreme listings receive millions of views. However, it is often the less extreme that benefit from bookings.

Harley Denham

General & Operations Manager, Group Travel World

Harley Denham has been the General & Operations Manager at Group Travel Word for 8 years. My role is to manage the monthly travel magazine along with developing the new projects; ticketing website www.grouptraveloffers.com and the new travel association TWA. I thoroughly enjoy working in travel and the people in the industry. Personal interests are horse riding and travelling.

Jeannette Gilbert

Head of Marketing, World Travel Market

Jeannette Gilbert is a Chartered Professional Marketer, specialising in Leisure, Hospitality, Travel and Airline Marketing. Jai has over 15 years’ experience in developing new and existing markets, growing global brands and identifying market trends and opportunities to bring in new and improved revenue streams. Named in Hot Topics magazine as one of the top 50 most influential travel and hospitality marketers in EMAEA & APAC for brand development, Social Media and Digital Marketing in 2016. Jai held the position as Head of Marketing for African Low-Cost Airline 'fastjet,' delivering multi-award winning marketing strategies and growing the brand to be the most recognised and largest community of social media followers in the continent. Her previous experience includes Head of Marketing for bluechip companies Whitbread Plc and Celebrity Cruises, is an influential member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and provides marketing consulting to start-up companies and training to university students. Jai has a Master's Degree in Business Administration, as well as Chartered Institute of Marketing qualified. She started her career as a marketing and PR executive for a global IT infrastructure company.

Emma Mead

Global Head of PR, VisitBritain

From the royal wedding to the Commonwealth Games, Emma’s 12 years working for us have been filled with unforgettable chances to show the country at its best. “My time across the Quality Schemes and PR teams has certainly kept me on my toes. No two days have ever been the same. One minute I could be devising a global influencer trip, the next I could be researching Scottish myths and legends for the New York Times. The media landscape is always evolving. I’m here to help us stay in the know about new platforms; who people are listening to and who we should be talking to. Developing our new media centre was a big part of this. It enabled broadcasters to download footage directly from the website. Why have I been here so long? It’s a cliché, but it really is the people. Whether we’re putting blood, sweat and tears into getting Britain ready for the lime light, or we’re standing back and watching our hard work unfold; we’re all in it together. Time flies when you’re having fun.”

Gerry Nixon

Head of Youth Strategy, The National Student

Gerry has spent the past 15 years working with hundreds of brands, Universities, Grad Recruiters, and Government helping them to understand and keep up with the exponentially changing behaviours of young people within the digital space.

Rebecca O’Hare

Rising Star 2017 & UK Residential Life Manager, Campus Living Villages

Since 2008, Rebecca has been working in the student accommodation sector commencing her career with Campus Life Services at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her remit expanded to overseeing their Resident Life programme, spearheading it to become more student-focused which resulted in improved engagement between staff and residents. Such was her interest in the area, Rebecca undertook an MA in Social Practice and the Creative Environment where her resulting research focused on harnessing the collective power of university and local stakeholders via the Neighbourhood Talks project, which she established. Recommended to progress to PhD, Neighbourhood Talks focused on improving community relationships between stakeholders, resulting in an innovative forum, which allowed all members to generate and execute ideas, which aimed to improve their local University community. Since 2013, Rebecca has worked and lived in Manchester, UK taking up the position as Head of Residence Life with Campus Living Villages in 2015. The creation and success of their inclusive Village Life programme introduced by Rebecca in 2016 saw her win the British Youth and Travel Education ‘Rising Star Award’ in 2017 as well as being shortlisted for the CUBO 2018 Residence Life professional award. The programme was also recognised by CUBO when a member of their London RA team won a Resident Assistant award at the same awards ceremony. Rebecca has represented Campus Living Villages on the ASRA (Association of Student Residential Accommodation) management committee, as their Northern Representative from 2016 – 2018 and has recently accepted a place on the Masters in Student Affairs in Higher Education at Anglia Ruskin University.

Paul Richer

Senior Partner, Genesys Digital Transformation

Paul Richer is Senior Partner of Genesys Digital Transformation a management consultancy specialising in providing advice on distribution technologies and strategies for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. Genesys has built a worldwide reputation for its knowledge and experience of the application of e-commerce and online distribution technologies to the travel industry. Clients include many of the best known names in travel. Paul has co-authored several reports examining the impact of technology on the distribution of travel, including “Distribution Technology in the Travel Industry” originally published by Financial Times Retail and “Marketing Destinations Online – Strategies for the Information Age” published by the World Tourism Organisation. He has presented at and chaired many online travel conferences, is regularly quoted in the press and has also been invited to make several appearances on television to debate the subject. Prior to founding Genesys in 1994, Paul was Business Development Director of Finite Group plc and Head of the Group’s IT strategy consultancy. He holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and is a member of the Institute of Travel & Tourism and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Paul is married with three children. His leisure interests include gliding and power flying.

Jason Steinmetz

Lecturer in Tourism, University of Surrey

Dr. Jason L. Stienmetz is a Lecturer in Tourism at the University of Surrey, UK where he is developing a program of research in destination management, the digital visitor economy, and big data analytics. Jason was awarded a PhD in Business Administration from Temple University, USA in 2016. At the University of Surrey Jason teaches undergraduate modules in the Business Environment, Tourism Management, and Technology, Media & Data. At the post-graduate level Jason teaches modules in Digital Marketing & Social Media and Tourism Social Science.

Miranda Thomas

Assistant Director Universities UK International

Miranda leads on all aspects of UUKi’s communications strategy including campaigns, stakeholder relations and events. She joined the team in June 2016 from Communications Management - a public relations and communications consultancy specialising in education – where she led the Business Education division. Before this she led communications teams at Cass Business School, City University London, and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She also has experience in consumer PR working with big-brand clients in food, charity and FMCG. She studied drama at the University of Exeter.

Farooq Ullah

Director, Stakeholder Forum

Farooq is the Executive Director of the Centre for Development Results (CDR). CDR is an organisation that supports companies that deliver development programmes to improve impact, value for money and accountability in their work. He is also Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development (UKSSD) and a Director of Stakeholder Forum (SF.) Farooq also hold several non-executive positions. He is an Associate of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), an Associated Partner of the European Sustainable Development Network (ESDN), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and a Peer for the 3rd International Peer Review of the vfGerman National Sustainable Development Strategy. Farooq holds a BComm in Management Science from the University of Alberta (UofA) and an MSc in Public Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE).