Steve Weikal
MIT Center for Real Estate
Steve Weikal is Head of Industry Relations at the MIT Center for Real Estate, responsible for managing relationships between the Center and its global network of industry partners and nearly 1100 alumni of the MIT Master's in Real Estate Development (MSRED) program, in 43 countries. He is also a lecturer and researcher, focused on innovative new technology and business models that disrupt the traditional ways of developing, transacting and managing real estate.
Steve is the Founder of MIT Real Disruption, a successful series of conferences discussing the impact of emerging technology on the real estate industry that was recently folded into the national CREtech conference platform, and he sits on the advisory boards of three real estate technology start-ups. Steve has spoken extensively about real estate disruption at conferences for AFIRE, IREM, SIOR, CCIM, CoreNet and BOMA, and has been quoted by numerous media outlets, including BuzzFeed, TechInsider, the Boston Globe, GlobeSt., the Real Reporter, and Anuario Inmobiliario LatinoAmerica.
Prior to his position at the MIT Center for Real Estate, Steve was Vice President of NOW Communities, a Concord, MA based developer of new residential neighborhoods that merge the best of traditional design with 21st century energy technology. Before graduate school, Steve was a National Media Tour Producer for Martin Scorses's The Blues, for WGBH Boston, was Manager of Partner Acquisition at Curl, a VC funded tech start-up launched to commercialize a new coding language developed at the MIT Lab for Computer Science and was Founding Partner of Sonoma Coast Vineyards, maker of award winning Pinot Noir from the Extreme Sonoma Coast Vineyards. He began his real estate career restoring and redeveloping historic theaters in Detroit's Fox Center entertainment district.
Steve holds a Master's of Science in Real Estate Development and Master's in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a law degree from Suffolk University Law School. He is a licensed attorney, a licensed real estate broker and a LEED Accredited Professional.
Jim Puffer
Founder and Owner of Gravitech Development
Jim Puffer is the founder and owner of Gravitec Development, Inc. He has been involved in supermarket research for nearly 40 years and has been the author of a variety of professional papers, as well as a guest speaker at a number of professional groups. He organized and built the "Store Location Conference", which is currently "GRAVISITE Site Selection Technology Conference". His education includes a B.A. in Psychology, and his graduate studies focused on Applied Mathematics, with particular interest in the convergence of non-linear matrices.
David Rogers
President of DR Marketing Systems, Inc
Dr. David Rogers is the President of DSR Marketing Systems, Inc. - a specialist retail research consulting firm. He was formerly Head of Site Potential for Sainsbury, the British supermarket chain, and is the Assistant Director of the annual Retail Location Analysis Conference at Oxford University's Business School.
Dr. Rogers is co-editor of Store Location and Store Assessment Research, a text-book published by John Wiley and a regular columnist for retail trade magazines in Canada, the USA and UK. Dr. Rogers has consulted with retail, restaurant, and shopping center clients in Australia, Canada, France, Iceland, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A.
Doug Munson
Principal/Owner MTN Retail Advisors, LLC
Douglas Munson is a Principal/Owner at MTN Retail Advisors, based out of Salt Lake City, UT. Doug has specialized experience in identifying and validating potential supermarket locations. In addition, he has worked extensively with and for a number of major grocery real estate decision makers. Doug offers a unique perspective from bot the retail and development side of the supermarket industry; employed 31 years in the grocery business, with 22 years identifying, evaluating and formally presenting retail locations. His past experience includes Senior Site Location Analyst for Smith’s Food & Drug Centers, Director of Site Location for Giant Food Stores and Development Manager for Phillips Edison & Company. In addition, Doug holds a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Utah.
Mike Saint
CEO & Founder at Anquiro, Inc
Founder and CEO of Anquiro, Inc, a tech company that provides critical market intelligence to companies whose profits can be decimated by new local competition and to companies looking for early warning of new business opportunities. Anquiro provides location-based bricks and mortar businesses with mission critical news of incoming competitors, and potential customers, where
they plan to locate and when they plan to open, in time for clients to implement strategies to maximize their profits. Anquiro can find new restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, multi-family residential developments, and other market entrants by searching its database of more than 70 million+ government documents that list applications for liquor licenses, gasoline storage permits, parking variances, zoning changes, building permits, municipal RFP's for services, and other applications for government approvals.
He is former chairman of The Saint Consulting Group, most experienced firm in the management consulting discipline of land use politics. Saint Consulting worked on more than 2,000 controversial projects in 48 states and four foreign countries. After a career in journalism, politics and public relations, he founded the company in 1983 in Massachusetts.
A graduate of Holy Cross College with a degree in political science, Mike earned his master’s in business administration from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. He has done additional study at the University of Chicago Business School and at the Harvard Business School.
Mike has been a guest lecturer at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University and the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University. He is the author or co-author of articles published in Land Development magazine, Urban Land magazine, Shopping Center Business, the Stone, Sand and Gravel Review, REBusiness Online and Design Intelligence magazine. With Robert Flavell and Patrick Fox, he co-authored the book "NIMBY WARS."
Tammy Fate
Manager of Retail Development & Recruitment for the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber
Tammy Fate, Manager of Retail Development and Recruitment for the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber has over 15 years of experience in the economic development sector. Fate graduated from Northeastern State University with a Master’s degree in Business Administration. She currently serves on the CREC Board, ULI Advisory Board and the ICSC Oklahoma State Director. Previous experience includes loan officer specializing in SBA 504 lending and business development. Tammy has served as an adjunct professor teaching various classes ranging from marketing & management to advertising and design.
Jessica Herrera
Director of Economic & International Development for City of El Paso
Jessica Herrera was born and raised in El Paso, Texas and earned her Bachelor's degree in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in International Business from the University of Texas at El Paso. Jessica has more than ten years of economic development experience including expertise on business recruitment, retention and expansion efforts, small business development, real estate and retail recruitment strategies, and successful marketing and communication initiatives. As the Director for the City of El Paso’s Economic & International Development Department, she works to build and strengthen public-private partnerships to rebuild key assets of the city and help create an environment that supports a vibrant regional economy.
Chef Steve Petusevsky
Culinary Innovation for the Food Service Industry
Chef Steven Petusevsky is nationally known as a pioneer in the pairing of health and exceptional taste. His culinary studies have taken him across the globe in search of innovative and authentic cooking techniques. Robust earthy flavors and vibrant cuisines capture the influence and unique reinterpretations of the ethnic dishes he is famous for creating.
Chef Steve was the National Director of Creative Food Development for Whole Foods Market from 1990 to 2002. He wrote the book on natural foods, quite literally. He is the author of The Whole Foods Market Cookbook – A Guide to Natural Foods with 350 Recipes published by Clarkson Potter in the fall of 2002.
Since 2002, he has worked as an outside resource and industry consultant to innovate or create food service programs for major retail and restaurant chains and institutions including Google, Lettuce Entertain You Group, UCLA, UMASS, Roundy’s, Mariano’s and Lucky’s Markets, Sullivan Family of Companies, among others. His passion and expertise in “plant forward” and Mediterranean-inspired cuisine remains the central focus of his work.
His recently published books, The Diabetes Vegetarian Cookbook and Sizzle and Smoke: Diabetes Friendly Recipes for Charcoal, Gas and Stovetop Grills were published by the American Diabetes Association in 2013 and early 2014.
Chef Steve is currently a member of the Menus of Change Advisory Board for the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and is co-chair of the CIA’s new Appetites & Innovation initiative, a national leadership collaborative created for the purpose of advancing culinary excellence, health & wellness, sustainability, and cultures of innovation in retail food service.
Jamie Gull
Owner of Salt
Jamie is founder and Principal of Salt Realty Advisors, a boutique consultancy partnering with retailers, developers, and other industry businesses on strategic planning, project design, analytics, financial analysis, project management, site selection, and transaction execution. Salt’s clients come from a broad cross-section of the industry including retail, fitness, analytics, mixed-use development, and pop-up retail.
Prior to founding Salt, Jamie led dynamic growth programs for multiple best-in-class retailers including L.L. Bean, CorePower Yoga, Cabela’s, and Franklin Covey. Over the course of his 20+ year career, Jamie has led thousands of real estate transactions (lease, purchase and sale, etc.) totaling millions of square feet of space. Additionally, Jamie has guided significant land development projects totaling thousands of acres.
Jamie holds an MBA from the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University and a BS in Political Science from the University of Utah. Jamie is on the Board of Advisors for MTN Retail Advisors and LocateAI. Jamie is based in Portland, ME where he and his family love to engage in all varieties of outdoor adventure.
Tamela Thornton
Founding Partner at ESmith Legacy, LLC
Tamela Thornton brings her 30-year experience in real estate management, analytics and development to her roles as Head of Client Services for E Smith Advisors – a commercial real estate services company and as President and CEO of E Smith Communities – a social infrastructure development company. Tamela is responsible for new business development, strategic planning, market analysis, option development, site selection, and transaction management. She is a founding partner of E Smith Legacy Holdings where she was responsible for leading business development for corporate real estate transitions.
As leader of a full-service real estate advisory practice, Tamela has provided national and global clients with a wide range of services, including developing market strategy, site selection, leasing advisory, national retail roll-outs, global portfolio advisory, space utilization, strategic planning, and financial services.
Prior to joining the E Smith Legacy umbrella, Tamela served as an executive for YUM! Brands and Starbucks, where she led the Central West Region construction and development team. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and resides in Dallas, Texas.
Andy Moncla
B.I. Spatial
Andy Moncla is Chief Operating Officer of B. I. Spatial. Andy has worked with many of the largest retailers and banks over the past 30 years and specializes in Business Intelligence, Spatial Modeling, and Customer Segmentation. Since 2005, Andy has focused on solving business questions through the use of Alteryx. With his pioneering spirit, Andy is the only 5-time Alteryx award winner, including “Best Use of Alteryx for Spatial Analytics” and being designated an Alteryx ACE. Lately, Andy has developed new applications for enriching mobile-device location data to better understand client or competitor locations and customers.
Sam Lowder
Vice President, Business Development at SiteSeer Technologies
Sam has helped many companies plan and implement effective research programs during his two decades in Retail Real Estate. This experience combined with his commitment to customer service helps him build SiteSeer's client relationships and guide those clients toward success. Prior to joining ROIC analytics (SiteSeer's parent company) in 2010, Sam ran the research department at Phillips Edison and Company. He also worked in operations for Albertsons before moving into corporate roles and becoming a senior analyst for the company. Sam holds a Bachelor of Science in business from Boise State University and is a licensed Real Estate Broker in Colorado. He is currently based in Denver, Colorado.
Bill Dakai
Vice President of Trade Area Systems
Bill is a co-founder and CEO at Trade Area Systems, a retail real estate software company based in Providence, RI. Before TAS, Bill was Director of Market Research for CVS Health. He managed the analysis of approximately 2,000 sites studies and was responsible for optimizing store location in new markets. Under his direction, the CVS market research team helped the company expand into new states including Arizona, California, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Minnesota.
Bill received his Master's degree in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His hobbies include mountain biking, hiking, and coding. Bill currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two children.
Jake Johnson
Director of Research
MTN Retail Advisors
Jake joined MTN Retail Advisors in 2017. He is charged with responsibilities that include; strategy of data analytics and retail performance. Jake discovers new research methods to give MTN and it's clients the most competitive edge in the market. He is also responsible for the build and application of our new and popular QuickScreen technology which allows a faster, easier and more precise pulse on site locations for our clients. Jake comes from Southeastern Grocers where he worked from a Senior Analyst to Manager of Planning and Analytics.
Ron Conlin
President and Founder
Site-Check Research Group
Analysing retail fuel and convenience locations for over 25 years in Canada and the USA.