International Keynote Speaker Bios

Brad Segal

 

Brad Segal is the founder and president of Progressive Urban Management Associates (P.U.M.A.), a Denver-based consulting firm providing management, marketing and economic development services to advance downtown and community development.  The firm has served more than 200 clients in 31 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas. 

 

Brad has more than 25 years of downtown management and community development experience as both a practitioner and consultant. He is one of the nation’s leading authorities on downtown trends and issues, strategic planning for organizations involved in downtown and community development, and creating business improvement districts.   Prior to establishing P.U.M.A., Brad designed and managed economic development programs to attract jobs and investment to downtown Denver as senior director of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

 

Brad holds a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in urban analysis from the University of California at Berkeley. He has served on the boards of directors of the International Downtown Association and Downtown Colorado, Inc., and he has been a featured speaker on downtown issues in regional, national and international forums.  Brad is the author of many articles and publications, including ABCs for Creating BIDs and Top Ten Global Trends Affecting Downtowns and How to Respond at Home.

 

Cathy Parker

 

Cathy is Professor of Marketing and Retail Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, where she leads and contributes to a number of commercial and research projects in the areas of retailing, marketing and place management. She is also Development Director for the Institute of Place Management, the professional institute for all those involved in making places better. The IPM is a joint venture between MMU and the Association of Town Centre Management.  Cathy is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Place Management and Development, published by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd and is Visiting Professor of Retailing and Place Management at the University of the Arts, London.  She is a Senior Examiner for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is an ad-hoc reviewer for the European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Journal of Applied Management Studies, Academy of Marketing, American Marketing Association and Sage Publications Limited.

 

Cathy was the Principal Researcher and Director for two £3.5m+ EU part-funded projects - AGORA, which aimed to bring the principles of social enterprise to town and other place management partnerships and REN, which aimed to promote and protect diversity in the independent retail sector. She has won two research prizes, from the Academy of Marketing and Marketing Intelligence and Planning.

 

Cathy has been an academic advisor and contributor to the All Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Town Centre Management.