Anthony C. Lea grew up in Forest Hill, Toronto. He attended the University of Toronto where he attained a Honours Bachelor’s degree in Geography in 1971, his Master’s degree in Geography in 1973, and his Ph.D in 1983.
In the early 1970’s Anthony taught at several Universities including the University of Minnesota, Queen’s University, and the University of Toronto. In the late 1970’s started working both in Academia and in the private sector. In 1982 he taught at the University of Toronto, while working for Compusearch, and taught a graduate level course at Queen’s University.
In 1986 Lea moved to Dallas, becoming a research director at a hospital there. In 1987 he returned to Toronto to begin teaching at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in the Applied Geography. In 1991 he started working at Compusearch again, as a research director, then as Senior Vice President, and then began working for MapInfo as the managing director. In 1997 he stopped working at Map Info and became the Senior Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity at Ryerson.
In 2003 he became the Senior Vice President and Chief Methodologist at Environics Analytics, a new company created by the former President of Compusearch. He is still in this position, along with being an adjunct professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Ryerson and an adjunct professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto.