Members of the 2012 Expert Panel

Lauren Barber set up G-Gee PR & Marketing to offer an all-encompassing package of promotional assistance to equine brands. Full of passion and enthusiasm for the industry, Lauren offers a full portfolio of services, including public relations, graphic design, digital services, social media co-ordination and media scheduling. G-Gee PR & Marketing provides equine brands with affordable PR and marketing solutions tailor made to their needs. Clients can be sure of receiving a reliable, friendly, yet professional service from a company they will truly enjoy working with.

Simon Black is Group Brand Strategy Partner at the international branding agency, Design Bridge. He is a passionate advocate of telling stories and building brands from the inside out. He likes to push the emotional boundaries and build brand experiences to reflect the vision of the businesses behind the brands. With almost twenty years' experience of brand building and consumer work in many sectors and categories, Simon has worked on a broad range of international brands, both corporate and consumer, including many award winning strategic design projects.

Before joining Design Bridge, Simon was a strategy director at Skybridge Group plc (EuroRSCG) and, in the early 90's, a prolific publisher of magazines and books. He graduated from Hull University with a degree in Organisational Analysis and, whilst still at college, started his career as a junior UK representative at NATO.

Susie has a business background, including being co-owner of a feed, tack and Western wear store, and a horse background consisting primarily of owning, raising and showing Quarter horses in Western Pleasure, Reining, and Halter. Focusing on the Western disciplines, lifestyle, and horseracing, Susie curates content, news and information for horse business owners and those in the horse industry in a number of ways: She is the Founder of #horsebiz curates news on ScoopIt; and on Twylah; and has been known to pin on Pinterest. Her primary websites and Social Media links include: Susie on Twitter; Cowgirl Cravings Blog; Horse Blog; Lifestream; Google+; Facebook; YouTube videos; and Flickr Photos.

Terri Brosnan is founder of EquiGeek. Half-horse, half computer nerd, Terri divides her time between the yard and the office, where she performs small marketing miracles for equine and other businesses, introducing them to the joys of the Internet and the Solace of Social Media.

Based in Meath in Ireland, she currently has two horses, three children and a menagerie of other semi-domesticated animals.

Chris has experience as a digital and brand strategist with all manner of organisations from charities to household brand names both large and small. He's worked on projects ranging from luxury gin naming to devising sustainability campaigns for schools. He co-founded the comprehensive website and email service PagePlay in 2008 which has since gone on to win awards for its ease of use. Chris loves combining exciting strategic visions with the practical realities of getting projects delivered.

The youngest member of the Expert Panel, Carl is a second year student at HOWEST in Kortrijk, Belgium. He pushes pixels and bends code with a constant eye for user experience. His study (named 'Devine') combines code development and digital design on a high level. He has a - still - growing passion for social media and the digital way of life. The equestrian world and love for horses has always been a good help in finding balance in that lifestyle. His biggest dream is to push the equestrian world forward with his knowledge and passion for both horses and pixels.

Rhea Freeman was co-creator of the ESMAs in 2010 but, for the 2012 Awards, is taking on the role of expert panel member.

Rhea set up Rhea Freeman PR in 2010, to provide equestrian businesses of all shapes and sizes with an efficient, personable and affordable PR, marketing and social media solution. The list of services offered has grown and now also includes consultancy, graphic design, website management, photo shoots and video production.

Combining a mix of big brand experience, passion, in depth industry knowledge, excellent contacts and a proven ability when it comes to copywriting, PR, marketing and social media; Rhea Freeman PR is well placed to get maximum exposure for any equestrian brand, at a very competitive price.

Thomas studied law and was a former TV journalist. From 1994 to 2008 he worked as head of the department of public relations of the German National Equestrian Federation. From 2008 to 2009 he was managing director of the German Association for Therapeutic Riding (DKThR). Since 2009 he has working as an independent consultant in all kinds of media, communication and marketing for several national and international companies and organisations and as a freelancer for the German NF and several magazines and newspapers. In his spare time the amateur riding instructor rode dressage, show jumping and eventing competitions, mostly on self educated and trained horses.

Joyce is well-known in the Dutch equestrian world. She won many gold, silver and bronze medals at the Dutch National Championships for Juniors, Young Riders and in the Small Tour. At six European Championships, she won team gold three times, team silver three times and individual bronze twice. At the moment she competes the approved breeding stallion Wup (by Welt Hit II) at national and international shows.

Joyce is a student of Dutch team trainer and coach Sjef Janssen. She is also employed at Anky van Grunsven's 'Anky Education Center', being responsible for e-learning, web-marketing & social media, and also teaches students from both The Netherlands and abroad.
Joyce is a true equestrian multi-tasker. She judges up to Intermediaire I, teaches students all over the world, works as equestrian tv commentator for Eurosport and has translated, written and published equestrian books.

ESM is Egypt's premier equestrian industry marketing and communication service provider linked with the phenomenal development of the equestrian sport in Egypt, the Arab world and Internationally. Owned and managed by Ahmed Hussein and Adham Samir, they started esmtoday.com and esmtoday.net to create value, spread news and useful information to horse people and build an equestrian online community, getting equestrians and non-equestrians connected, all for one aim, which is spreading the equestrian lifestyle into the society, to uplift our equestrian sport into a higher hierarchy among other sports nationally and internationally.

Richard joined the FEI HQ in Switzerland, three years ago following a varied international career within the entertainment and not for profit sector. Richard has been behind a number of new initiatives within the governing body of the sport, including the FEI Awards, FEI Focus magazine along with numerous new innovative communication tools. One of the most exciting ventures has been the entry into the vibrant social media environment, and to reach out to the growing equestrian networks around the world.

Lisa Kemp is a leader in the equine marketing, public relations, and social media world. A finalist in the first ESMAs in the 'Best Use of Twitter - International' category, Lisa is also the only equine industry woman named to the 'Twitter's Top 75 Badass Women' list by BitRebels.com.

As an outspoken advocate for better horse world marketing to improve overall industry growth and success since 2005, Lisa combines her passion for the equestrian lifestyle with her branding and technology expertise in work for Kemp Equine clients, public speaking at equine industry events, and at her No Biz Like Horsebiz blog. For more about Lisa's background, read the About page at KempEquine.com.

Lisa's PR and writing efforts have received both equestrian and mainstream industry recognition through multiple awards; knowing the importance of that recognition, she's honored to be a part of the Expert Panel for this year's ESMAs. Lisa feels that despite differences of breed, discipline, or activity, we're all horse people at heart and should work together to improve horse access to those that seek it.

Haylie grew up in Taumarunui, a small country town in the central North Island of New Zealand and started out riding a Shetland pony before heading down the dressage path.

Successfully representing NZ as a young rider, Haylie went on to spend time training in America before returning to New Zealand to study a Bachelor of Applied Science majoring in Equine and Agribusiness.

Landing a job as Marketing Executive at New Zealand Bloodstock (NZB) Haylie continued her involvement with horses taking on young horse and re-schooling others for sale. After six and a half years at NZB, Haylie made the move to Sydney in September 2010 to take up the role as Business Manager of the revolutionary online equine sale ring, Horsezone.com.au. Owned by leading thoroughbred auction house Inglis, Horsezone.com.au was the first part of the Inglis online business strategy and in February 2011 was joined by Bloodstock.com.au under the Inglis Digital banner, for which Haylie now acts as Marketing Manager.

Haylie has recently been joined in Sydney by her five-year-old Hanoverian she bred, Louis and is looking to start competing him in dressage in the coming year.

Elisabeth McMillan is an equestrian business consultant and the owner/editor of EquestrianProfessional.com, a website that provides business and career support to professional equestrians. Equestrian Professional offers a wide array of horse business and marketing tools to help horse professionals run more profitable businesses, including a series of social media guides just for horse professionals, social media webinars and even an Equestrian Social Media Boot Camp on how social media can be best utilised by horse industry business owners. Equestrian Professional was recently recognised as a top ten finalist in the 2010 Equestrian Social Media Awards for Most Informative International website.

Elisabeth has extensive real-life experience with both equine and equestrian related business. She has worked with horse business owners, high profile equestrian athletes and a wide variety of equestrian oriented businesses, including companies such as Pure & Simple, Monaco Coach Company, Equestrian Designs and Patagonia Clothing Company. She also has 25+ years experience directly in the horse business. Elisabeth owned and operated a successful Hunter/Jumper barn in Santa Barbara, CA. During this time, she competed on the "A" circuit, owned and operated an onsite/online tack store, filmed and produced equestrian educational videos and imported and sold horses from Ireland, France, Holland, Switzerland, and Belgium. Elisabeth speaks for equestrian organisations and events all over the country.

Chad Mendell is the current editor of Equestrian Social Media Today and the former executive editor of The Horse: Your Guide To Equine Health Care and TheHorse.com where he developed an array of online educational products from videos, newsletters, and live webinars. In 2010, he founded CowDog Media, an inbound marketing and web development company focused on helping businesses be more than just a point of purchase for their customers by helping them become an invaluable resource.

Chad is the newly elected vice president of the Kentucky Horse Council. Additionally, he actively trains and shows reining horses.

Mason Phelps, Jr., who began his career assisting the legendary Jimmy Williams, is a lifelong horseman, event manager, governance leader, charity organiser, and multi-media executive.

Phelps was named Alternate to the U.S. Three Day Team that competed in the Mexico City Olympic Games and was named the U.S. Combined Training Associations Rider of the Year.

Phelps founded, produced, and managed the first International Jumping Derby in Newport, Rhode Island, founded and created the New England Horsemen's Association Hunt Seat Medal, and was a major player in the formation of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida. The World Dressage Masters in Wellington is his most current project.

He was Chairman of Zone I for the former American Horse Shows Association (now USEF), and Phelps also served as president of the New England Horseman's Council.

Currently, Phelps, as President of the National Horse Show of America Ltd., oversaw the highly successful rebirth of the Alltech National Horse Show in Lexington, Kentucky in November of 2011.

As a philanthropist, Phelps was one of the founders of the Equestrian Aid Foundation, and is a key fundraiser for the United States Equestrian Team.

Phelps, the founder of Phelps Media Group, Inc. International, an equestrian public relations firm, also created the nation's best equestrian news website, PhelpsSports.com.

Pascal has been an equestrian journalist since 1977, having published his first articles in the daily newspaper, Paris Normandie. He has worked in media for different organisations including many equestrian magazines around the World (France, Germany, Italy, Mexico) on equestrian disciplines and breeding. Today he is more specialised in show jumping and Polo, and mainly works for EQUESTRIO, L'EPERON and Z-Magazine. In the meantime he opened a PR agency (Press office) called R&B Presse working for all the most important shows in France: Worldcups in Lyon and Bordeaux, CSI***** Cannes, Chantilly and Paris/Saut Hermès, he is the interface for the French press for the CHIO Aachen, and also runs the press for the 2 most important Polo Clubs in France, Deauville (Gold Cup) and Chantillly French Open, as well as for the Living Museum of the Horse in Chantilly.

Sara Silfverberg is one of the digital natives, growing up with a camera in one hand and the computer in the other.

But not only for digital, her heart has also pondered for horses, which has made equestrian sport to be a natural part of her life.

With a background and an education in the digital development and the digital innovation field, she is today working with brands as Falsterbo Horse Show, World Dressage Masters and Jan Brink (Tullstorp) as an innovator, brand manager and social media strategist. Together with her companion, she also runs the full-service agency Lovetown Castle and their digital TV production company Equestrian Digital, producing documentaries and short films within the equestrian field.

Moreover, meanwhile the many horse shows, Sara is also working with the extremely cutting edge education company Hyper Island, that is spreading knowledge to as well university students to advertising agencies and brands world wide, to provide them a way how to understand and move their brands and businesses into a digital world with endless of possibilities and challenges.
On top of this, Saras' favorite color is red, she loves strawberries but hates apples, cant get enough of good contemporary art and have her entire house full of king size poodles. And, if you ever get a chance to buy her a drink; weather it's champagne or dry martini: Think Dry. In fact, very dry...

Victoria completed the British Horseracing Authority's graduate scheme before working for Horse & Hound for several years. She was promoted to the role of deputy editor at Horse magazine before going freelance in 2010. She is now the Editor of the Horse & Country TV website, as well as press officer for the All England Jumping Course at Hickstead. Victoria also writes and edits for a number of publications, and does PR for LewisHarding, the publisher of Dressage Dreams. She owns a six-year-old ex-racehorse called Confidence Trick whom she hopes to event, and her main equestrian interests are show jumping, dressage, showing, eventing and racing.

Laurens is the founder of BackBone media, a communications company. Among its clientele are several equestrian companies, including Belgian, Olympic jumping rider Dirk Demeersman; one of the very first equine athletes with a fully integrated communication mix including social media.

Laurens is also a co-founder of Equestro, a Belgian equestrian news site, based on the principles of objectivity, quality & interactivity.

Above all, he's a horse lover. Together with his wife he cherishes one BWP mare, her 4y old son, one pony, three Shetland ponies and one donkey. Several of them have been mistreated in the past. So it's their goal to give them a second chance.

Mandee Widrick is a self-proclaimed social media nerd and founder of Horse Family. She created Twitter's weekly #HorseChat in 2010 which occurs every Monday at 9pm ET and provides social media consulting services to the horse industry. She enjoys connecting consumers with brands online and sharing her quirky personality with others by creating fun videos to promote new products. Follow Mandee on Twitter.

Members of the Expert Panel (EP), full-time employers and organisations owned by EP members are not eligible for nomination in any category.

Businesses which employ EP members on a freelance or part-time basis may be nominated. Before finalists are announced EP members will be asked to declare any conflicts of interest; current/previous clients or; any other relationships deemed relevant. The task of judging those, will fall on other members.