Simon is the co-founder of Extravision, a privately owned ESP based in Manchester and have been involved in email marketing for over 10 yrs. His role has been to develop the technology and product from the ground up to provide a stable and secure infrastructure. Today his current focus is moving more towards looking at how we deliver the emails and our “delivery reputation” as well as growing the business and investigating new technologies.

Before Extravision, Simon was development manager at Productivity through Software, a software house specialising in reselling and developing tools for software developers. They started using email as a marketing tool in the late 1990’s and Simon headed up the development of their first email marketing tools. Simon joined the DMA Email Marketing Council Best Practice and Legal Hub in May 2010.

"I keep six honest serving men they taught me all I know - There names are what & why & when, and how & where & who".

Commercial Strategist / Pragmatic Practical Marketer with over 20 years experience in Europe / US and Asia. Currently training for the 2012 Olympic Beer drinking team after being banned for testing positive for lager in 2008

Following graduation from University, Sara Watts began her Direct Marketing career in the motor industry, which soon led to her joining Carsource Ltd, the UK’s first online car portal, as Marketing Manager in 1995.

Over the last 12 years, Sara has played an integral role in the growth and development of Carsource Ltd. Following Sara’s launch of the Data side of the business the business was re named, Data, Media & Retail Ltd (DMRi). Sara has worked at DMR since it was founded and has seen the business grow form a small privately owned business to a large data company which was purchased by DMGT in Jan 2006. In March 2010 DMRi was purchased as part of a management buyout. Sara now works with a team of Directors / owners and is concentrating on making sure DMR is ahead of the game in integrating social media with more traditional online marketing to ensure clients are able to undertake data collections and email marketing effectively and with great results.

Sara has played an active role on the DMA’s email council for 4 years and has is also on the best practice and legal hub. Since completing an MBA in 2006 Sara has also had an academic interest in the industry and strongly believes that it is in everyone’s interest for individuals and companies to share best practice, insight and technological advancements. This approach of sharing of knowledge, combined with sound business knowledge and common sense can lead to marketers and consumers benefiting from excellent marketing.

Deborah is the senior director relationship marketing at Possible Worldwide responsible for the global development and growth of relationship marketing capabilities and service offering including: thought leadership and training, and business development. Deborah has a long track record in CRM (Customer Relationship Marketing). Throughout her career, she has worked with clients globally to support them on their journey to develop and launch compelling engagement strategies and programmes which address the key question: “How should we treat our best customers?” Before joining Possible Worldwide in 2011, Deborah was the CRM Practice Director at LBi London, leading a practice of nine consultants. Prior to joining LBi, Deborah worked within Experian Integrated Marketing as a Principle Marketing Consultant.

Riaz is the Marketing Director at Alchemy Worx, the only digital agency to focus 100% on email marketing services. In addition, Riaz also serves on the Email Marketing Council at the DMA; managing the Council's social media communications (including this blog) and working on the Partnerships and Events and Communications hubs.

Before joining Alchemy Worx, Riaz founded Digital Oxygen, the digital marketing services agency that translated sophisticated offline direct marketing techniques to email. Digital Oxygen was later acquired by Silverpop where Riaz built out the international Services, Marketing and Alliances teams.

Prior to this, Riaz founded First Media, the pioneer of online video advertising. He managed the technology and services groups delivering integrated enterprise marketing solutions and global video marketing campaigns. Throughout Riaz has also consulted on cutting edge digital projects for clients internationally.

Riaz also writes on his marketing blog and you can follow his tweets here. He regularly speaks around the topics of email marketing; social marketing and integrated marketing both online and at tradeshows or events. Please contact him directly or through Lyris if you would like to invite him to your event.

Matthew is Acxiom’s Director of Agency Services for EMEA having been a founder member of the Acxiom Digital [formerly Digital Impact] team in the UK in 2000. Prior to joining Digital Impact, Matthew has experience in a number of marketing roles including work in the automotive services and pharmaceutical industry.

Matthew has worked with clients such as HP, Nokia, BAA & Sony Ericsson to develop world leading multi-channel eCRM programmes helping acquire, engage, retain and grow customers relationships.

Matthew has excellent knowledge of digital and integrated marketing, in particular global email marketing and regularly comments on these topics in the trade and marketing press. In addition to being a regular speaker at events such as IDM, TFM, Marketing Week conferences, as well as being a regular judge at the DMA awards.

Matthew is an active member of the Email Marketing Benchmarking Hub.

Guy has spent more than 20 years working in various aspects of marketing and data management. His current employment with Return Path’s professional services team represents a natural fit - providing response consulting solutions to a broad range of international clients to optimise the performance of their email marketing programmes. Guy is a regular contributor to the EM press and a frequent speaker at major industry events. He has also led the delivery of numerous whitepapers, including the DMA’s Email Marketing Best Practice Guidelines.

With more than a decade of experience in the field of email marketing, Richard currently leads Silverpop’s marketing efforts throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior to his role in the UK, he managed product marketing for Silverpop, developing the company’s go-to-market strategy for its Engage product line. Before joining Silverpop, Evans was vice president of interactive services at Target Resource Group, where he spearheaded the development of a suite of online marketing tools, and provided marketing counsel to North America’s largest and most renowned performing arts companies in the areas of email marketing, direct marketing, and ecommerce. He has also served in executive and marketing roles as the managing partner of EM Interactive Media in Atlanta, as well as at Nortel Networks. In short: Contributor of thoughts on email marketing and B2B marketing. New dad. Husband. Foodie. Expat. Director of Marketing for Silverpop.

Jonathan, is Sales Director of CACI’s Customer Solutions Group. He joined the business in 2007 and is responsible for growing sales, new product development and marketing. Over the last 10 years, Jonathan has been a regular contributor to the DM press; a trainer on the DMA’s Buying your data workshop; Vice-Chairman of FEDMA and is currently a member of the DMA Email Marketing Council.

Jonathan started in the data industry back in 1997 when he joined HLB (part of WWAV) as data sales manager responsible for the sales and management of their list management portfolio.

In 1999 he joined Uni-Marketing heading up with list management department. During his time at Uni-Marketing the business became seen as one of the top three list management and broking companies in the UK, which culminated in the company winning the SMART Awards 2004 for Best List Manager and Best List Broker. He was also responsible for managing the UK business for British Family Publishers (part of Time Inc.), the magazine circulation agency.

In 2004 he joined Wegener DM in the role of Commercial Director, where he was responsible for their lifestyle and education sales divisions. He launched Fast-Tracker, the first product in the UK to take a consumer’s response to a lifestyle questionnaire and deliver it to a client within 24 hours, increasing response rates by up to 1000%.

As Director of Strategy and Research at the Communicator Corp, James is responsible for the global client services division and he is a member of the senior management team having been with the Communicator Corp since its incorporation in 2003. 



His passion is email. James loves helping people learn more about the channel and seeing how their knowledge and results develop over time.


As he has been sending email marketing campaigns since the late 1990’s James has developed a wide range of knowledge and experience, but he relishes the fact that as the channel continues to evolve it gives him a chance to continue to learn.



At the Communicator Corp James works hard to ensure that industry leading consultancy is provided to his clients and that he helps them achieve their objectives from the email channel. 



James is a passionate advocate of email and mobile marketing, and with his work at the Direct Marketing Association he is keen to see email becoming a truly integrated marketing channel.

denise cox is Newsweaver’s Lead consultant. Newsweaver is a leading European email newsletter specialist and service provider, giving customers the email software and tools required to create emails that deliver results. denise has extensive knowledge in email from best practice and marketing know-how to content. In 1996 she formed her own email marketing agency. In 2000 she joined forces with Newsweaver. Since then denise has been providing practical consultancy and best practice guidance to the Newsweaver’s clients, enabling them to maximise their investment in email.

denise writes the email newsletter, “The Business of Email”- which has been publishing for over ten years. She also has an award-winning blog, “… email matters!”, and is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, as well as conducting email marketing workshops throughout Europe. denise also contributes to a wide variety of publications around the world.

She was elected to the DMA’s Email Marketing Council in 2009. denise also serves on the Council's Partnership Hub and the Events & Communications Hub.

Sian Brookes is an Account Manager at multi-channel direct marketing consultancy, ReynoldsBusbyLee. RBL works with corporate and charity clients across all marketing channels. Sian works across digital: multi-channel response handling and outbound for reactivation and up-sell. Sian understands the importance of integration, multi-channel marketing, and has an excellent eye for detail. She was selected to attend the IDM’s fast track course in August 2009 and is an active member on the Email Marketing Events and Communications Hub.

Managing Director of dotMailer & Group Business Development Director dotDigital Group; Tink is one of the founding directors of the dotDigital Group PLC, formally Ellipsis Media Ltd, which was established in 1999 as a full-service digital marketing agency. With offices based in south London, central London and Manchester they drive site traffic and sales through strategy and design, providing smart, easy to use but sophisticated digital marketing products along with professional services.

Covering areas such as Search Engine Optimisation (www.dotSeo.co.uk), creative graphical design, strategy and implementation through dotAgency, email marketing through dotMailer, content management through dotEditor, and ecommerce solutions via dotCommerce, the dotDigital Group PLC is uniquely placed to provide the full circle digital marketing mix.

Tink is Managing Director of dotMailer, launched in 2000, designed to offer the features of a high-end email marketing system but with an intuitive easy to use front end. Tink has extensive experience in introducing the concepts of digital marketing to companies new to the field, as well as in servicing major brands such as the BBC, Shell, HP and Rank. Previously he had worked on the roll-out of global corporate CMS based intranets at IBM, giving him over thirteen years experience in interactive digital communications.

Tink speaks regularly in industry for not only the dotDigital Group, but also at events and tradeshows for the Direct Marketing Association and the Internet Advertising Bureau. His seminars are always well attended and received.

Tink joined the DMA’s Email Marketing Council in 2006 whilst working in the Deliverability Hub which produced the white page ‘How we Got Here and What Marketer’s Should do About It’. Tink also provided the Benchmarking Hub with an on-line survey application (formBuilder) enabling them to carry out their quarterly and annual benchmarking reports. Tink introduced Hotmail to the DMA’s Email Marketing Council as both parties look to form much closer relations with opportunities such as providing Key Note speakers at major events. Tink was instrumental in helping Hotmail bring the UK ESP community together at the deliverability seminar held at Microsoft.

Tink was re-elected to the council to serve another 3 years in March 2010 and remains Chairman of the DMA’s Partnership hub which promotes Email Marketing’s Best Practise where he has a remit of creating links with other industry bodies in the USA, UK and Europe.

Tink also sits on the IAB’s E-communications Council. As a result the IAB announced that it endorsed the DMA’s Best Practice Guidelines. In doing so the IAB and DMA formed a coalition which aims to raise industry standards and stimulate the positive development of email as an effective and respected marketing channel.

The IAB’s endorsement marks an important step towards establishing a consistent industry approach to email marketing standards and having Tink as a member of both councils was instrumental in bringing the two bodies together. 

Working with both the IAB and DMA Tink is one of the co-founders of the landmark joint event named Ready Steady Email, which is a hands-on email workshop designed to help delegates to understand and apply best practise.

Tink is available to speak at events, please contact him or dotMailer if you would like to invite him to your event.

Tim Watson has over 8 years experience in B2B and B2C Digital Marketing, helping blue chip brands with successful email marketing.

He is an elected member of the UK DMA Email Council, supporting the email marketing industry. Tim Chairs the Legal and Best Practice hub of the Email Council, authoring and reviewing DMA whitepapers and best practice documentation. He is also a frequent speaker and blogger on emerging email marketing trends.

Tim works as an independent email marketing consultant providing strategic support to email marketing teams.

Rupert is a Senior Strategist at integrated marketing agency Tequila\ London, part of the TBWA\ Group Network. Rupert advises a wide range of both B2B and B2C clients, including The Army, The Carbon Trust, Canon and Nissan, on Data Strategy and how to maximize the return on their data assets.

Rupert has been working in Direct Marketing for more than 12 years. Prior to Tequila\, he held the position of Customer Marketing Planner for News International, working on multi-channel data strategy across all NI titles (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World.) He began in list management for Wyvern Direct Response, before moving into Data Broking with Dudley Jenkins (part of Wegener) and Zed Media.

Following a period of co-option, Rupert was elected to the Email Marketing Council in January 2006 and was Chair of the Best Practice, Data & Legal Hub for 3 years. Rupert currently leads the Council’s Client Hub.

Tim works for Redeye International heading up the data segmentation and deliverability strategy for their clients.

Tim has over 20 years marketing experience and has worked in online marketing since 2003. He is currently developing the use of online engagement segmentation to optimise and improve clients ROI from email. Tim’s experience covers the main vertical markets, Travel, Retail, Financial and Gaming. Tim is a professional member of the IDM and has spoken at a number of seminars and industry events such as the IDMF and Ad:Tech; he also sits on the Best Practice and Legal hub of the DMA Email Marketing Council.

Dela Quist, has nearly 15 years of online media, advertising and marketing experience, the last 10 of which have been in the email space. He is CEO of Alchemy Worx, a digital marketing agency with a 100% focus on email and a diverse client portfolio of global and UK based brands such as Tesco, Vodafone, Hilton Hotels, Lilly, AOL, Intercontinental Hotels Group, The Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Holidays.

Dela is chair of the Events and Communications hub and contributor to the Benchmarking hub of the DMA's Email Marketing Council. He is regularly invited to speak on the creative, legal, commercial and technical issues that affect email marketers.

Richard works for Return Path in their UK office managing the relationship with their channel partners, predominately email technology providers. Return Path seeks to perfect the art and science of email by championing inbox standards for senders and receivers.

He is also a long standing Email Marketing Council member having been elected twice to the council, originally joining as a co-opted member in 2003. Prior to which he served on the Business-to-Business board elected committee between 2001 and 2003.

Since 2004 he has Chaired the Benchmarking Hub which continues to deliver The National Email Marketing Benchmark on a quarterly basis along with the annual client survey which has become an important source of information for DMA members.

He also worked with IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) to organise the first ever joint evening event between the two trade bodies; ‘Email Marketing: Art or Science’ held at The Rex Cinema in February 2007.

He has regularly contributed to trade press articles, blogs and a book on the topic of Email Marketing and has chaired and spoken at UK DMA events as well as presenting DMA research in several European countries. In 2005 he was voted by B2B Marketing Magazine as one of the top twenty opinion formers in the UK.

Prior to joining Return Path in April 2009 he was Commercial Director for RSA Direct and has many years direct and interactive marketing experience.

Simon was appointed UK Managing Director in early 2009, having previously been Director of Operations, UK and France.

In his role as MD, Simon is responsible for growing eCircle’s business in the UK, overseeing a team of 60. With over ten years experience in online marketing, Simon has advised on email strategies for clients including Samsung, Argos, HBOS, MBNA and Standard Life.

Simon has a wealth of public speaking experience and regularly delivers presentations at events throughout the UK including eCircle’s own conferences, Internet World, Technology for Marketing & Advertising and the Chartered Institute of Marketing Digital Conference to name but a few.

Before joining eCircle in 2002, Simon was previously Senior Project Manager at independent web development agency Hyena where he worked across a number of clients in the public services sector.

Simon joined the DMA Email Marketing Council as a co-opted member of the Best Practice, Data & Legal Hub in 2009 and co-wrote a revised version of the Email Deliverability Guidelines and was officially elected onto the council in February 2010.

Skip Fidura who is the Managing Director of dotAgency and the Group Digital Director to the dotDigital Group has been in marketing for over fifteen years, having worked in contact centres, direct marketing, customer analysis, and digital marketing. 

Most recently Skip was Email Partner at OgilvyOne London and prior to that he was the Director of European Operations for Acxiom Digital.  He has worked with clients such as Hallmark, BT, Kodak, hp, and Travelocity.co.uk.

As the senior director for Return Path’s Response Consulting group, Margaret helps clients improve the response, revenue and ROI of their email marketing programs. She uses her knowledge of content, design, segmentation and email campaign strategy and branding to help her clients build their files with active and engaged subscribers, increase the lifetime value of their subscriber base, improve program relevancy and generate sales.
Before Return Path, she spent 10 years producing and managing multi-channel integrated direct marketing programs for Fortune 100 companies, focusing on the financial services and technology sectors.
She most recently held a senior-level marketing position with Strategic Communications, Inc., a marketing/communications agency in Boston, where she spent five years. Previous experience also includes project management and editorial roles at SchoolSports, Inc., publisher of RISE Magazine, the nation’s leading sports and active lifestyle magazine for teens (formerly SchoolSports Magazine), and SchoolSports.com.

Margaret is currently based out of Return Path’s London office.

Kath Pay is aCo-Founder and strategic email & digital marketing consultant with Plan to Engage.

In 2001 Kath Pay co-founded Ezemail, one of the pioneers of the email marketing industry in Australia, and expanded it into the UK in 2004 and prior to that she owned a small Web Design agency with extensive skills in HTML coding, designing, internet marketing and Search Engine Optimisation.

In the twelve years that she has worked in the digital marketing industry, Kath has participated in many of the industry activities that have seen email marketing become an essential channel for integrated digital marketing that delivers measurable return on investment. Key issues for Kath are email deliverability, creative, lifecycle marketing and email marketing best practices.

Kath has developed a reputation as an email marketing expert through her insights into the industry which are documented via the DMA Email Council's blog and is also a regular blogger on EmailExpert.org a well-read email marketing blog.

Kath is a member of the UK DMA's Email Marketing Council and is the Chair of the Events and Communications Hub. As part of her remit she is the Editor of the council's monthly newsletter Infobox, which has over 6,000 subscribers. She lectures at the IDM and is a regular speaker at industry events both nationally and internationally, including EEC Miami & Scottsdale, USA and Barcelona, Online Marketing Summit (OMS) London, IDMF London, Email Marketing Conference, Utrecht, The Netherlands.