Charly Lester

CEO & Founder

Charly Lester first founded The Dating Awards in 2014 as a response to questions which readers of her popular dating blog ’30 Dates’ sent in, asking for advice on which dating sites, apps and services to use. Now in their 4th year, the UK Dating Awards is the largest dating industry event in the world, and Charly has also taken the Awards to the US and the European mainland. Charly has become one of the world’s leading dating industry experts, and a sought after industry consultant, representing the online dating industry in the press, on TV and radio, and at prestigious tech conferences.

Charly is the former Global Head of Dating for Time Out, has worked as a Dating Editor at The Guardian, and CMO for M14 Industries. Her dating advice and expertise has appeared in most national newspapers and magazines, and she is a regular guest on the BBC. Charly has represented the online dating industry on BBC Newsnight, and was an Expert Advisor to Lord Sugar in the final of the BBC’s The Apprentice in 2015. Charly has appeared on expert panels for Londonist, AdWeek and The Europas. She is the Head Judge of the UK Blog Awards, and writes a fortnightly newsletter for M14 Industries about the dating industry.

I can’t believe we’re in our fourth year already! Time certainly flies when you’re having fun! And what an awesome four years it’s been. This year we ran our second European Dating Industry Conference, and were privileged to have Grant Langston, CEO of eHarmony, Robyn Exton, CEO of HER and Geoff Cook, CEO of MeetMe all fly out to Amsterdam to speak. We are returning to the HAC again for a fourth year, but every year I try to add something new to the event, so don’t worry this year there will be more surprises! Bring on the celebrations!

Follow Charly on Twitter @leagueofcharly and on Instagram @LeagueofCharly