Welcome to our committee
They come from different backgrounds, including retail, retail banking, consultancy and academic industries as well as a member of staff from each of our sponsors, CACI and Geolytix. They all volunteer their time and meet throughout the year to help plan our events, source venues and speakers and champion site location, helping us to ensure the SLA offers useful events and benefits and stays up-to-date and relevant..
 Co-chair Contact Andy | Andy Thompson Lead Coach, Red Tiger Coaching | Andy has a strong background in retail, leisure and commercial property development specialising in providing business services in consumer behavioural analysis and analytical data systems to clients in these sectors. He holds a great passion for developing people and helping them realise their full potential in both their personal and work lives. Andy loves the outdoors, planning expeditions, kayaking, sailing, mountaineering and skiing, or just sleeping out local to home under the stars, known as bivvying! Andy is married, with 3 grown up children and enjoys an active life with his family. |
 Co-chair Contact Steve | Steve Halsall Founding Director, Coaching and Consulting Lead Red Tiger Consulting | Steve has worked in analytics for over 25 years – with various senior roles in consulting and client side. His real passion is to help build successful teams that evolve their capability (skills, software and data) in order to meet the ever–changing requirements of analysis and insight. Steve has two young children, supports Liverpool FC and enjoys long walks with his trusty working cocker spaniel. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for charity in Sept 2022 and plans to publish his first book in Sept 2023. |
 Contact Jonathan | Jonathan Reynolds, Deputy Dean & Associate Professor in Retail Marketing at Oxford University’s Said Business School and Academic Director, Oxford Institute of Retail Management. Saïd Business School | Jonathan Reynolds is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading academics in this field. He took over as Chairman in 2014 from Peter Sleight who retired from the position and devoted nine years to his chairmanship. His hard work, connections and tireless dedication to the group keeps it fresh, current and forward thinking. |
 Contact Matt | Matt Pratt Geospatial Lead & SME – Associate Partner CACI (SPONSORS) | Matt has an MSc in GIS, 5 years industry side at Sainsbury’s, 7 years Consultancy side in Retail Strategy and Analysis at Accenture. Now at CACI, Associate Partner in Location Intelligence helping drive and innovate solutions across sectors and markets, driving value for our clients. My sweet spot has always been linking broader strategic objectives with deep analytical modelling and insight. |
 Contact Alissa | Alissa Twinning Senior Retail Consultant CBRE | Alissa Twinning joined CBRE as a Senior Retail Consultant in August 2021. She previously worked as a Location Planning Analyst at Halfords for three years and before this at Homebase and Argos. She has always had a passion for location analytics and joined the committee at the SLA to help promote the field to the next generation of location planning analysts |
 Contact Andy | Andrew Metherell Head of Consultancy & Analytics at Newmark | Andy has worked in retail property for over 15 years and heads HDH’s Retail Consultancy team. He advises occupiers, public sector bodies, landlords, etailers and investors on the optimal strategy for their brands and centres, using data and analytics to enable informed decision-making. He has worked for a wide range of clients – at different stages of their evolution and in various sectors – across many markets around the world. |
 Contact Antony | Antony Hunt Data Engineering, Customer Channels, Strategy & Innovation at Lloyds Banking Group | Antony is a business analytics specialist and professional strategist with 15 years’ experience. Having worked on transformation programmes directly within financial service, retail and leisure companies, his strengths balance applied spatial data science, business acumen and practical business analytics to support investment decisions; covering location planning and estate strategy, operational change, customer experience, service delivery and multi-channel alignment. An advocate for spatial analytics, aiming to promote understanding and active application, to drive positive real World outcomes. |
 Contact Kate | Kate Broad National Location Planning Manager, Coles, Australia | Kate has 23 years’ experience in location planning, GIS and Network Strategy planning. She has worked within the retail banking, real estate and leisure industries and her strengths include creating and project managing an end-to-end process to create a right size and format store portfolio that continually evolves and meets the needs of both customers and business alike. Kate joined the SLA during her time at TSB to initially provide insight from a service industry perspective. She enjoys being part of a team with years of experience promoting the different aspects of location analysis and its importance within wider industry. |
 Contact Kerry | Kerry Smith Location / Portfolio strategy professional | Kerry’s passion for location analysis has seen her work across a variety of retailers and around the world. She’s tried to escape a few times, dipping her toe into wider customer insight roles, but her love for location stuff means she just keeps coming back! She’s currently on maternity leave from her much loved role with the Coop after welcoming her baby daughter in November 2020. |
 Contact Luke | Luke Burns Associate Professor in Quantitative Human Geography University of Leeds Luke’s bio | Luke Burns has taught at Leeds University as a professor in GIS and Human Geography for over 11 years. He joined the SLA to help promote Location Planning to students and universities and helps to organise, promote and judge the SLA Student Awards. |
 Contact Lizzie | Lizzie Dawson Customer & Delivery Partner Geolytix (SPONSORS) | Lizzie has worked across Location Planning, Consumer Research and Retail Consultancy roles for the past 10 years. She began her career at CACI, where she spent 4 years in the Property Consulting Group. She later moved to Sydney for two and a half years where she helped guide businesses with market research and analytics. At Geolytix, she works with customers to provide the right spatial decisions to support their investment decisions. |
 Contact Ruth | Ruth Holroyd Membership and Event Coordinator Ruth’s Blog (Whatallergy.com) | Ruth has worked as the marketing and administrative support for the SLA since its inception when she was Marketing Manager at GeoBusiness Solutions. She now works as an author, blogger and copywriter and also advocates and blogs about allergies and eczema. |
 Contact James | James Holden Senior Strategy Manager, Costa Coffee | James Holden has a strong background in retail and property strategy and specialises in leveraging analytical data systems to drive informed decisions and shape the strategic direction of retail estates. He has also played a key roles in establishing location planning functions within organisations and contributing to the successful execution of strategic initiatives. Outside of work, James is an avid traveller who has attended over 150 international football matches in 42 countries. He also shares his love for animals with his two cats, and enjoys spending his spare time exploring new destinations and immersing himself in different cultures. —————– |
 Contact Andy | Andy Stringer Location Planner, TUI | Andy has worked in Location Planning for over 30 years now starting with paper OS maps and a length of string to hand build catchments. Spending almost 20 years at Argos he formed a Location Planning team that delivered over 500 new stores covering the UK & Ireland as well as managing the customer insight and test and learn functions. More recent experience at EE/BT reminded him just how crucial spatial analysis is beyond retail planning with projects including COVID analysis and mobile network coverage. 2023 saw him return full time to Location Planning working for TUI. He has a passion to both encourage the next generation of spatial analysts, but also to increase the reach of the SLA |
 Contact Isabelle | Isabelle Hease CEO & Head of Product Visitor Insights Ltd (SPONSORS) | As CEO of Visitor Insights, Isabelle leads a geolocation technology business that enables companies to make smarter, data-driven decisions using mobility and demographic insights. With a background in research and analytics in the retail property sector, she specialises in using data to drive strategic decision-making across real estate, planning, and development. Previously, Isabelle led the Research & Analytics Team at Ellandi, delivering data-driven solutions for retail and urban planning projects. Until recently she sat on the Board of the British Property Federation and chaired the BPF Futures Advisory Board, overseeing initiatives in influencing, learning, mentoring, and networking. She now sits on the BPF Technology and Innovation Committee, contributing to discussions on property technology and data innovation. Through her leadership at Visitor Insights, Isabelle continues to drive the adoption of data and technology in real estate, retail, and urban development. |
If you are interested in helping as a volunteer on the SLA committee, please email info@thesla.org.