Massimo Burgio is a well-known expert on international online business topics, and a frequent speaker at the Search Engine Strategies Conferences, both in Europe and the United States.

Massimo is a proud founding member of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), where he co-Chairs the Global Committee, Chairs the Sempo Latino Working Group, and volunteers within the Sempo Europe Working Group. Massimo is also an active member of the Internet Marketing Group at WebGuild, the Silicon Valley-based Forum for Internet Professionals, where he coordinates, moderates and speak about search/interactive topics also at the events organized by WebGuild.

Coming from a mixed background of copywriting for advertising, a degree in Marketing Communication, first post-graduate jobs in direct marketing, and IT security/data protection consulting, Massimo jumped in the Internet and interactive industry since its early steps in Italy, back in 1996.

He contributed to the start-up and launch of some of Italy’s biggest Internet portals such as Kataweb, Wind, and RAI Net before moving to the agency side, where he covered Business/Marketing Director positions for two of Italy’s top creative interactive agencies, Deepend Rome and Xister. Today Massimo is still part of the Xister Advisory Board, and have an ongoing strong partnership with the award-winning Roman agency.

Burgio moved from Rome to San Francisco in 2003 to launch the US branch of Ad Maiora, an Italian search marketing firm. In 2005 he joined the search marketing agency Zunch Communications to help launch and lead the agency’s local branch in San Francisco.

In June 2006, Massimo set up Global Search Interactive, a start-up that focuses on the integration of search/interactive channels for International targeting, serving worldwide brands such as Barilla and University of Rome, alongside with small and medium business from Europe and the United States.

As an education background, Massimo Burgio received a Degree in Marketing Communications from the University of Rome (I) La Sapienza, with further studies at the University of Hertfordshire (Hatfield, UK) and at the Universidad de Oviedo (Spain), recently integrated by post-graduate courses on Integrated Marketing Communications within the Berkeley Extension Program (California, USA).