Tony Hernandez is the Director and Eaton Chair in Retailing at the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity (CSCA) and Professor within the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Ryerson University. He was awarded an M.Sc. in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) at Leicester University and a Ph.D in Retail Geography and Management at the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), UK. Before embarking on his Ph.D he worked in government planning in the UK. His doctoral research focused on the impact of GIS within major retail organizations. After his doctorate, he was employed as a Research Fellow at MMU, working in the Locational Planning and Management Group within the Department of Retailing and Marketing.

Dr. Hernandez has presented and published numerous articles and papers on location decision making and analysis. His current research interests include location analytics, retail planning and location strategy, spatial analysis, data visualization and decision support. He has undertaken research with and supported research activities within a large number of major retail organizations in Canada, the US and Europe, specializing in retail location decision making research.

He is a member emeritus of the North American Research Taskforce of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the former Co-Chair and member of the ICSC Canadian Retail Research Group. In 2012 the ICSC acknowledged his contribution to industry with the ICSC’s Award for Outstanding Service to the Research Community.

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.

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.