Maurice Yeates has been a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity, Ryerson University in the Ted Rogers School of Management since 1996. Yeates earned his BA from Reading University (UK) in 1960 and his PhD from Northwestern University in 1963. He served as Dean, School of Graduate Studies, Ryerson University, 2002-10; and was appointed Dean Emeritus in 2010. Previously, he was a faculty member at the University of Florida (1963-1965) and Queen's University (1965-1996), where he also served as Head of the Department of Geography (1973-8), Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research (1979/84), and Founding Executive Director of the Bader Centre for International Studies at Herstmonceux Castle, UK (1993/95). From 1986 to 1994, he was seconded from Queen's to the Council of Ontario Universities to serve as Executive Director of the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies. His research and consulting has focused on urban and regional development, and spatial location/allocation in the consumer service sector. He is author, co-author, or editor of 19 books, 60 articles in refereed journals and edited books, and over 100 reports. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1980; and received the 1982 Award for Scholarly Distinction in Geography from the Canadian Association of Geographers.

Kenneth (Ken) G. Jones holds an MA and PHD from York University, and first joined the faculty at Ryerson as a professor of geography in 1970. As an academic at Ryerson, he specialized in business geomatics, geo-spatial analysis and marketing geography. In 1992, Jones founded the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity. Dr. Jones was awarded the NSERC/SSHRC Chair in the Management of Technological Change in Retailing from 1996 to 2006 and held the Eaton Chair in Retailing from 1995 to 2005. Jones also served as chair of Geography from 1987 to 1991. Dr. Jones was the recipient of the Sarwan Sahota Distinguished Scholar Award in 2000 and the Errol Aspevig Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership in 2012. In 2005, Dr. Jones was appointed the Dean of the Ted Rogers School of Management. Dr. Jones retired from Ryerson in July of 2013.