Adaeze Mbeki
Chair- Seasons
- 2027, 2026, 2025
The institution
The panel
A panel nobody can name is not independent, it is merely anonymous. Here is who judges a PALMA, and what they are told before they start.
The panel, counted
- Seated
- 3
- Per candidacy
- 3 minimum
- Season
- 2027
- Chair votes
- Never
3 judges seated3 judges minimum per candidacyScores never published
PALMA publishes its panel because independence that cannot be checked is just a claim. What it never publishes is what any individual judge did: no scores, no assignments, no remarks, no conflict declarations. Who sat is public. How they voted is confidential, permanently, and no complaint, sponsorship or press enquiry changes that.
Judges are appointed for a season at a time by PALMA, on the basis of what they have actually done in the industry rather than how large an audience they have. They are paid a flat honorarium that does not vary with how they score, and they never learn which nominations came from whom.
Seated for 2027
Who judges
Adaeze Mbeki chairs the panel. The chair sees the spread of scores before any list is confirmed, and scores nothing.
Frances Okonjo
- Seasons
- 2027, 2026, 2025
Marcus Hale
- Seasons
- 2027, 2026, 2025
How a judge is kept honest
- 01
Independence before aggregation
Every judge scores alone. A judge cannot see another judge’s score, remark or ranking until their own is submitted and locked.
- 02
Conflicts declared, not managed quietly
A declared conflict removes the candidacy from that judge entirely. They cannot open it again. Reassignment is an administrator’s job, and the declaration is written to the audit log.
- 03
Outliers trimmed, not overruled
Where four or more judges have scored, the highest and lowest are dropped before ranking. Nobody is asked to change a score to fit.
- 04
Scores are immutable
A submitted assessment cannot be edited. A correction is a new, audited entry made by an administrator, with the state before and after it.
- 05
Sponsors are structurally excluded
There is no route through which a sponsor can reach a judge, see a score, or learn an outcome early. Not a policy, an absence of the mechanism.
The criteria themselves are published at how judging works, and the full process is set out in the competition rules. To raise a concern about the conduct of a season, write to concerns@palmaawards.com.