Crichton Conversation with Professor Leigh Sparks

Professor Leigh Sparks is Professor of Retail Studies at the University of Stirling. He was Deputy Principal at the University for 8 years until 2024. He was a geography undergraduate at the University of Cambridge and completed his Ph.D. (on retail employment) at the University of Wales. Leigh is Board Chair of Scotland’s Towns Partnership (2013-date), was a member of the External Advisory Group on the Scottish Government’s National Town Centre Review (2012-2013) and on the Expert Advisory Group advising the Scottish Government on the lessons to be learned from the Horsemeat Scandal (2013).

During 2020, Leigh was a member of the Scottish Government’s Social Renewal Advisory Board, the report from which (If Not Now When?) was published in January 2021, and Chaired the review of the Town Centre Action Plan for the Scottish Government, the report from which (A New Future for Scotland’s Towns) was published in February 2021. He was a member of the Scottish Government’s Ministerial Retail Strategy Group, which wrote the Retail Strategy for Scotland, published in March 2022.

Leigh is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, runs a blog on retail matters (stirlingretail.com) and is Board Chair of Made in Stirling CIC.

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