THE JUDGES

Sandy Myhre – New Zealand

Sandy has covered motor racing from all the major tracks of the world. She was the first woman member of NZ Motoring Writers’ Guild, the first woman member and first President of the NZ Motorsport Media Association. A former British and current NZ economy driving record-holder, Sandy is an established author having written 50 Years on Track (Hodder Moa) Holden (Holden NZ) From Indy to Indy, Scott Dixon (Hodder Moa), The Rat - The Paul Radisich Story (Harper Collins).

Regina Chan – Canada

Regina is the founder of AutoNerve Magazine, the first and only professional automotive publication in the Chinese language across Canada. She has twenty years of experience in the Canadian-Chinese Media industry as Reporter, Editor, Public Relations, Radio program host, Guest host for television program in various magazines, international Chinese newspaper, local multicultural radio station and Television.

Renuka Kirpalani – India

Renuka was editor and host of the CNBC TV 18’s award winning Autoshow since its conception in 2003 until 2007. She shifted over to UTVi in 2008 where she retains the position of editor and host of the Automotive show. She has test driven and reviewed every car in the Indian market and has been on the Jury for the Indian car of the Year, World Car of the Year and for the Autocar Awards which are considered the Oscars of the Indian Industry.

Lou Hammond – United States of America

Lou Ann is the founder and owner of www.carlist.com, the longest-running used car database in the world and one of the first auto sites on the Internet. She is a regular guest on MSNBC, CNBC with Larry Kudlow and NBC Nightly News, as well as Autoworldradio and Motortrend radio. Lou Ann belongs to the Motor Press Guild and is former Vice President and chairperson of media day for the Western Automotive Journalists. Her blogs and new car reviews are syndicated and seen on many top auto sites.

Charleen Clarke – South Africa

Freelance writer Charleen Clarke began her potholed path in motoring journalism in 1984, working on a newspaper in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, in South Africa.

Sue Baker – United Kingdom

Sue is an award–winning freelance motoring writer, editor and broadcaster, with over 30 years’ experience of car testing and new product launch reporting, analysis and commentary. She was a presenter on the popular TV car show Top Gear for 11 years, and is former motoring editor of The Observer newspaper. A former chairman of the UK-based Guild of Motoring Writers, she is current chairman of the Southern Group of Motoring Writers and secretary of the Fleet Street Motoring Group.

Jil McIntosh – Canada

Jill has been writing professionally about cars since the early 1980s. She is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada and is a judge for the association’s Canadian Car of the Year awards. A freelancer, she regularly contributes car reviews and opinion pieces to the weekly Wheels section of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper; the Canadian newspaper chain Metro, where she writes a weekly column on automotive technology; and Autos.ca, where she writes car reviews, compiles an annual Buyer’s Guide and assembles the daily news report.

Alicia Ryzewski – Argentina

Alicia has collaborated with various publications including Debate, Bank Magazine, Performance Credit, Password Infobae, Auto Test, MegaAutos, InfoAuto, The Gallery (LifeStyle) and Cielos Argentinos, among others. She served as a columnist for “Alta Performance”, Radio Palermo and Radio El Mundo and "Malos y entendidos” on Radio America. In 2008 Alicia joined as an editor of Motor Media SA, www.tiempomotor.com, and was responsible for closing an editorial partnership with AutoData Editor, the leading publisher of Brazil, and largest in the South American market.

Jacqui Madelin – New Zealand

Jacqui is an award winning motoring journalist. She has held the role of motoring editor for Herald on Sunday and writes for newspapers, magazines and websites including Mellor GoAuto, Classic Car, RV Motorhome and Lifestyle, Natural Parent magazine and several regional papers. She is also a regular participant at the competitive end of economy drive rallies, and fits the occasional public speaking engagement between motoring commitments.

Geraldine Herbert – Ireland

Geraldine has been a motoring journalist for over ten years and is currently the Editor of Motoring Life, Ireland's long established Motoring magazine. On International Women's Day 2012, she launched www.wheeslforwomen.ie, Ireland's first motoring website for women. Geraldine writes for newspapers, magazines and websites including the Sunday Independent, Irish Country Magazine, and Good Housekeeping (UK). A jury member for the annual Irish Car of the Year awards she is also a regular commentator on motoring matters on TodayFM.

Maggie Barry – Scotland

Maggie Barry is Motoring Editor of Media Scotland and writes mainly for the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail, two of Scotland’s leading newspapers. She began her career in motoring journalism by helping out on the motoring pages and what was merely an interest turned into a fascination.

Marta Garcia – Spain

Marta is one of the first female motor journalist in Spain. In 1990, she began writing about motoring in ELLE magazine, a part of the french multinational Hachette Filipachi by then. Her automotive passion led her to found Cibercar in 1996, the first magazine on Internet in Spain and a reference for another projects that were coming little by little to the spanish market. Aware of new techonologies and with very wide experience in four wheels, she was claimed by Hachette Filipachi to take over of Managing Edition of Car and Driver. Eight years later, she became responsible of the motor section in QUO, a trendy popular science and lifestyle media print, also belonging to Hachette Filipachi, today acquired by Hearst Magazines.

Odiel Mennink – The Netherlands

Odiel Mennink is a car journalist and the founder of femmefrontaal.nl, a Dutch website that focuses on the female perspective on cars. As a car journalist, she wrote for AutoVisie/Telegraaf, Testauto, and several lifestyle magazines and she was nominated for the Dutch online VIVA400 award in 2013. In her spare time she races as a guest driver in the Mazda MaX5 Cup in The Netherlands.

Ylle Rajassar – Estonia

Ylle Rajassar is a producer and screen writer for television and film working with Estonia Public Broadcasting focussing on education, the environment, technological innovation and science. In 1987, when she was still in school, she began freelance writing and in 2012 she started her own car blog because, she says, she thought it was important to encourage more women to take an interest in technology and cars.

Sevil Okumus – Turkey

Writing about cars was the last thing on my mind when I graduated from a Business School. My primary line of work has always been the “online” business. Despite ending up here by chance, it feels like it was meant to be in the sense that it uses all of my previous knowledge and experience, as varied as that is. I have been writing automotive news and articles covering various fields and aspects of the industry, generating & analyzing facts and figures regularly specially on used cars, intervieving industry leaders and preparing road test videos, broadcasting car events online for the public and writing, managing and publishing them.

Jaedene Hudson – Australia

Australia is underrepresented when it comes to female motoring journalists compared with the US, UK and Europe. I am excited to be a part of the Women’s World Car of the Year awards panel and hope that my participation will encourage more women to get involved in the automotive industry.

Hoa Huyen – Vietnam

In 2006, I started to write about cars by chance . For beginning, I didn't have much knowlegdes about cars because in Vietnam, the main kind of vehicle of Vietnamese is motorbike. I always try to learn as much as possible everything about car and now car become one part of my life and my passion.

Juliet Potter – Australia

Another Australian has been added to the jury for Women's World Car of the Year. Juliet Potter is the Founder of a car website designed specifically to appeal to women. She joins Jaedene Hudson who was appointed earlier in the year, thus strengthening the voice of women in motoring in Australia and other countries in the South Pacific region.

Sara Soria – Spain

Sara is a journalist specialised in automobile world and road safety for 20 years. Her beginnings in motor journalism were in the weekly magazine 'Motor 16' and continued in 'Autorevista' and 'Nuestros Talleres', magazines aimed at the professional sector of the editorial company 'Tecnipublicaciones'. In the year 2000 she made the leap to digital media to launch Supermotor.com, one of the first car webs in Spain -created by Ya.com Internet Factory, where she worked for 11 years. Since 2011 she manages her own motor webs, Mascoche.net and Masmoto.net in the company Ediciones Digitales MASED. She also works as a freelance journalist at Coches.net and at the Real Automóvil Club de España (RACE). In recognition of her work, in J une of 2016 she received the Accenture Journalism Award in the Technology category for a report on the autonomous car.