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

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. Since then, she has written about cars for dozens of magazines and newspapers in South Africa and around the world.

Sue Baker – United Kingdom

Sue Baker 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. Her work has covered all branches of the media, including newspapers, magazines, television, radio and online.

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 Herbert has been a motoring journalist for over 15 years, writing for various newspapers and magazines and regularly contributing to radio and tv discussions around motoring. She is currently Contributing Editor and Motoring correspondent for the Sunday Independent. Geraldine is also founder and editor of Ireland’s first motoring website for women.

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 journalists in Spain writing today about cars in Men's Health, Women's Health and Runner's World. 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.

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 Tampere – Estonia

Ylle Tampere 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.

Hoa Huyen – Vietnam

In 2006, I started to write about cars by chance . For beginning, I didn't have much knowlegde 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.

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. During 7 years she managed her own motor webs, Mascoche.net and Masmoto.net in the company Ediciones Digitales MASED and now she manages MovilidadHoy.com, focuses on ecological mobility.

Isabel del Angel Negrete – MEXICO

Isabel has been working in the automotive industry since 1998. Her first three jobs were in magazines specializing in freight transport and in 2003 she became Editorial Director specifically to start the website www.Netcar.com where she still works. In addition to that, she has collaborated in producing an automotive supplement of the newspaper El Economista and the magazine Alto Nivel.

Carla Ribeiro – PORTUGAL

Carla Ribeiro says she has been passionate about cars, and everything that involves them, since she can remember. “The beginning of this adventure was by accident in 2003,” she says. “I had already covered motor sport for the Portuguese daily, Público, and was writing about economics when I was called to attend my first presentation of a car model.

“The truth is that in those days I would spend more of my free time in automobile repair shops and on racing circuits than in cafés or bars.

Francisca Munoz Matus – CHILE

Francisca Muñoz Matus is the founder of the first media outlet in Chile to examine the auto industry from a female perspective. She is now a member of the jury panel of Women’s World Car of the Year which will considerably strengthen the awareness of the awards in South America. She joins Alicia Ryzewski from Argentina and Isabel del Angel Negrete from Mexico in the region. In fact, there are now five Spanish-speaking (as first language) women motoring writers on the jury. Francisca has been working in the automotive world for nearly seven years. She was part of the writing staff of Automóvil Panamericano magazine, a Chilean franchise of the magazine that originated in Mexico.

Nadine Armstrong – Australia

One of Australia’s top consumer automotive journalists has joined the jury of Women’s World Car of the Year. Her addition to the judging panel considerably strengthens Down Under representation in what is considered the South Pacific’s strongest market.

Nadine Armstrong, from Melbourne (Victoria), is a leader within the growing number of female auto writers and not by chance. Her abiding love of cars, motorcycles and adrenalin-based activities are candy-coloured by her passion for fashion and design. She began motoring writing in 2006 with Fairfax print media and joined the Carsales team in 2013. Her lengthy experience in motoring spans both two and four-wheel variety.

Solveig Grewe – GERMANY

The first German woman to be appointed to the jury of Women’s World Car of the Year began her professional life as an industry lawyer. It was her passion and enthusiasm as a motorist that literally drove her to a second career as a freelance motoring journalist. After 15 years with the legal profession she began writing on cars in 2005. Solveig writes consistently for two German daily newspapers, Westfälischer Anzeiger and Hessisch Niedersächsische Allgemeine, discussing her opinion of new cars from, and for, a female point of view.

Anat Daniel – ISRAEL

Anat Daniel from Israel has a solid and comprehensive background in journalism and completed much of her training in what could be called the ‘traditional’ way. She started writing for small newspapers before the age of 18 years, covering current affairs and news before moving on to the newspaper at Ben Gurion University where she studied communications. She later worked for Radio Darom where she wrote and broadcast news items.

Liz Swanton – AUSTRALIA

Liz Swanton has more than 20 years’ experience in a career that includes working in Australian newspapers, radio, TV and magazines, and as a freelance writer and PR consultant. She began writing about motoring and motorsport in 1993 for The Sydney Morning Herald and continued for the next 10 years as a motoring writer for publications including MOTOR, Motor Racing Australia, Australian Auto Action and RALLY.

Ariadne Gerasimidou – GREECE

Ariadne has worked for the biggest magazines, newspapers and websites in Greece including Auto Motor and Sport & and Sport Auto magazine (where she started her career 12 years ago); the number one website in Greece News Auto, Proto Thema newspaper, Al'ha 98.0 radio as producer and se has directed her own video website AutoVideo. Also she is automotive editor in chief in SDNA.gr, automotive editor (Menshouse.gr) and journalism teacher in KAR Edu. Besides, she is Social Media Video Presenter

Liza Maria Rojas – Columbia

She is an automotive journalist and producer from Bogotá, the country’s capital city. She began writing motoring for a Chilean website (Autofact) and edited blogs at Neumarket in Mexico, before creating her own website, Mujeres y Autos.

Guillermina Fossati – ARGENTINA

Guillermina Fossati is one of the country’s premier motoring writers. She is the car market editor in iprofesional.com and is a collaborator for Miura magazine. Her studies include a degree in journalism from Salvador University and a bachelor’s teaching degree from Nuestra Señora del Socorro School.

Jimena Olazar – ARGENTINA

Jimena Olazar is the communication manager for CESVI (Centre for Experimentation and Road Safety). The company investigates and analyses road safety in cars and conducts crash tests under the protocol of the Research Council for Automobile R (RCAR). She is in charge of national and international media for Crash Test magazine and Crash Test TV, as well as handling social media aspects.

Petra Muhr – Austria

Motoring journalist, Petra Mühr, is Chief Editor of Familienautos, the only family car magazine and catalogue in Austria, a print magazine that is also available in Germany. She is also in charge of autentio, a corporate publishing agency devoted to the automotive industry. Before this employment she founded Autofrau in 2014 – clearly devoted to women and cars – and now continues the blog with colleagues, all employed in different jobs and all of them car enthusiasts.

Shereen Shabnam – DUBAI

Sheren Shabnam from Dubai is the Editor-in-Chief of Millionaire magazine, a role she has held for the past 16 years. She is also a prolific luxury and lifestyle motoring writer for various publications around the world. Furthermore, she writes for leading regional (GCC) public relations agencies and contributes to Executive Women, Capital Business, 800 Lifestyle, Trending Business Insights and MADAME magazine.

Olesya  Repkina – RUSSIA

The first Russian to join the jury of Women’s World Car of the Year has considerable experience as a journalist and a racer. Olesya Repkina lives in the capital city, Moscow. She began writing 15 years ago for a lifestyle magazine and rapidly became an innovative automotive journalist specialising in women and cars by starting the first, and only, auto magazine for women in Russia – Women on Wheels.

Michelle Ferreira – Brazil

Michelle Ferreira from São, SP. Brazil, has joined the jury of Women's World Car of the Year. She is a reporter with the prestigious Autoesporte magazine and is high profile within her country as one of the few women motoring writers there. She began writing about cars as an intern for Editora Globo in 2012 as a trainee in Autoesport magazine. She worked with a business magazine, Grupo Globo, for two years before returning to write about cars in 2016 with Autoesporte¸ where she has remained.

Nicole Wakelin – UNITED STATES

The outlets for her work are numerous and she says it’s constantly changing. The prominent titles she works with include The Boston Globe, Boston.com, Autobytel.com, Gatehouse Media, BestRide.com, AAA Northeast, the NAPA Know-How blog and Arizona Driver magazine.

Lou Hammond – UNITED STATES

Alix Capper Murdoch – CYPRUS

Joining the jury panel of Women’s World Car of the Year for 2019 is Alix Capper Murdoch. She comes with an impressive background in broadcasting, driver training and media communications all connected with motor racing and the motoring industry.

Ilaria Salzano – ITALY

Ilaria is working for La Repubblica, Cosmopolitan Italia, Missionfleef, Chiechi.it and she is codirector of Donneinauto.it as well. She also started discussing women and cars on www.donneinauto.it because she felt it was important to her as a woman and automotive journalist. She shares the editorial content with Monica Secondino co-founder of website, worker in high finance during the day.

Caroline Duval – FRANCE

Contributing Editor Les Enjoliveuses

Mervi Varonen – FINLAND

She lives in the city of Jyväskylä in Central Finland, in the heart of the Finnish Lakeland territory. 

She began her media life in 1997 as a producer of FinnNiche magazines in Helsinki. After moving back to her hometown of Jyväskylä, she began to write articles and take photos as a one-woman enterprise.

Sabina Kvasova – CZECH REPUBLIC

She is one of the country’s highest-profile women motoring journalists and founder of the independent online magazine Zena v Auteeven. 

Etsuko Kusuda – JAPAN

She started writing articles about the automotive industry for an automotive newspaper.  In 2011 she became the editor-in-chief of a new business magazine, Ligare, that covers the general topic of mobility and two years later she became a freelance ‘mobility’ journalist. Her business goal is “mobility for our happiness” and says both the car industry and the mobility industry are facing significant problems.

Rita Cook – UNITED STATES

American motoring journalist, Rita Cook, has been appointed to the jury panel for Women’s World Car of the Year from 2017.

Myladys Soto – PUERTO RICO

She began her writing career with El Expresso newspaper before joining Metro newspaper during its foundation seven years ago.  This gave her several opportunities. As a motoring journalist for the past three years she attends launch events, she has access to all new cars for test driving in Puerto Rico and various other countries and she can attend international automotive shows.