Expert Directory

These 44 practitioners have shaped how the industry thinks about email. They’re referenced throughout this guide where their specific insights are most useful. Follow them for ongoing education.

The categories below increasingly bleed into one another. The centre of gravity in email has shifted toward AI and automation: agentic email run through MCP, AI-drafted copy and personalisation, and flows that trigger on behaviour rather than calendar dates. Several practitioners listed under Platform Builders, Copywriting and Ecommerce now do most of their best work here. The grouping at the end pulls those threads together.

Strategy: Chad S. White (Zeta Global, author of Email Marketing Rules) | Kath Pay (Holistic Email Marketing, co-founder of Holistic Email Academy, 28+ years) | Jay Schwedelson (SubjectLine.com, GURU Conference) | Jeanne Jennings (Email Optimization Shop, Georgetown professor) | Dela Quist (Alchemy Worx, EEC 2022 Thought Leader) | Ann Handley (MarketingProfs, ‘Total Annarchy’ newsletter) | Ryan Phelan (RPEOrigin, Chairman Emeritus EEC)

Platform Builders: Nathan Barry (Kit, 600K+ creators) | Tyler Denk (beehiiv, ex-Morning Brew #2) | Jimmy Kim (Sendlane, DTC focus) | Brennan Dunn (RightMessage, personalisation pioneer) | Rytis Lauris (Omnisend co-founder & CEO, bootstrapped to 100K+ customers) | Nicolas Vibert (Relay Commerce / SmartrMail, AI product recommendations)

Copywriting: Joanna Wiebe (Copyhackers, coined ‘conversion copywriting’) | Laura Belgray (Talking Shrimp) | Ben Settle (Email Players, daily email approach) | Chris Orzechowski (Orzy Media, ecommerce copy) | Samar Owais (Emails Done Right, SaaS sequences) | Tarzan Kay (email marketing expert and boss-babe-in-recovery)

Deliverability: Matthew Vernhout (Netcore Cloud) | Troy Ericson (EmailDeliverability.com, ‘The Email Paramedic’) | Lauren Meyer (SocketLabs)

Design and Technical: Mark Robbins (Customer.io, CSS-only email) | Paul Airy (Beyond the Envelope, accessibility) | Justin Khoo (FreshInbox, interactive email) | Jason Rodriguez (GitHub, ex-Litmus)

Ecommerce and Retention: Chase Dimond (Structured Agency, $200M+ in email revenue) | Val Geisler (Fix My Churn, behaviour-based onboarding) | Reinis Krumins (agencyJR, DTC email+SMS) | Danavir Sarria (SupplyDrop, flow architecture)

Agency: Scott Cohen (InboxArmy) | Garin Hobbs (InboxArmy, lifecycle design) | Shaun Ernst (Email Experts, Klaviyo Platinum Master Partner, Melbourne) | Brenden Rawson (Andzen, first Klaviyo Elite Master Partner in APAC, Klaviyo Agency Partner of the Year APAC 2025)

Newsletter Growth: Dan Oshinsky (Inbox Collective) | Matt McGarry (GrowLetter, paid acquisition) | Liz Wilcox (‘The Fresh Princess of Email Marketing’)

Consultants: Ian Brodie (author of Email Persuasion and Unsnooze Your Inbox) | Jordie van Rijn (Emailmonday, platform comparisons) | Eman Ismail (ethical email strategy) | Andrew Kordek (iPost)

Content Creators: Alex Cattoni (Copy Posse) | Noah Kagan (AppSumo, 750K+ list) | Gavin Laugenie (Dotdigital)

AI & Automation: This isn’t a separate roster so much as where the people above are heading. The work that matters now is agentic email (running flows, segments and sends through MCP), AI-assisted copy and personalisation, and behaviour-triggered automation that replaces calendar-driven blasts. Watch Nicolas Vibert (Relay Commerce / SmartrMail) on AI product recommendations, Tyler Denk (beehiiv) and Nathan Barry (Kit) on platform-native automation and ad infrastructure, Danavir Sarria and Samar Owais on AI-built flow and sequence architecture, and Brennan Dunn (RightMessage) on dynamic personalisation. More directory entries will shift into this category as the practice settles; the count stands at 44 while newly approached practitioners are confirmed.

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