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.

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.