Asia Pacific Working Group

John Dawson is Emeritus Professor of Marketing at Edinburgh University and Emeritus Professor at University of Stirling. His academic life started in geography at UCL, Nottingham and Wales before becoming Fraser of Allander Professor of Distributive Studies at Stirling and subsequently Edinburgh University’s first Professor of Marketing. John’s research has focused on the changing structures and processes in retailing and marketing channels and their interactions with political and socio-cultural environments. Whilst at Stirling he established the Institute for Retail Studies which has become the UK research centre for retailing with multiple academic and corporate links. Research has been undertaken with related research groups in Europe and East Asia on periods as Visiting Professor in Italy, Spain and Japan. A number of extended periods in several Japanese Universities, supported by JSPS, resulted in joint research and doctoral student support with Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Chinese scholars and companies. A number of these co-researchers have been hosted for visits to Stirling and Edinburgh Universities.

Joseph Maguire is an Associate Professor at the University of Glasgow, specialises in computing science, with a focus on security, privacy, and education. He is a member of the Centre for Computing Science Education, investigating computing systems’ theory and applications, stressing their societal impact and responsible evolution. Passionate about advancing computing science education and public policy, Joseph serves on the international Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Education Advisory Council, Elected Chair of the UK ACM Chapter in Computing Science Education and British Computer Society (BCS)  Co-Chair for the Scottish Computing Education Committee. He champions inclusivity and quality in computing science education, collaborating to maximise opportunities for all. He is also a current member of the Young Academy of Scotland.

Dr Tae Ho Shin (Tim. J. Shin) is the Director for Division of Low Carbon Energy & Materials DX including Hydrogen Energy Materials Centre in the Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET). He holds M.S. in ‘Ceramic Engineering’ from Yonsei University and received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Engineering from Kyushu University, Japan (2012). He furthered his research as a Research Fellow at the University of St. Andrews, UK, working with Prof John T. S. Irvine from 2012 to 2015. Since his expertise lies in crystal structure analysis to design materials with enhanced electrochemical properties, Dr Shin’s research focuses on developing novel oxide electrodes for electrochemical devices such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) in the Division and his Hydrogen Energy Materials Centre, he built up in 2015 the Group ‘Low Emission Advanced Power Lab.’ at the institute dealing among others with solid oxide electrochemical cells, steam electrolysis and solid batteries. As a key member of national committees, he has contributed to Korea’s hydrogen energy policies, including Korean Fuel Cell R&D plan and the Korean Carbon Neutrality R&D roadmap.

Leigh Sparks was a geography undergraduate at the University of Cambridge and completed his PhD on retail employment at the University of Wales.

He has been Professor of Retail Studies at Stirling since 1992. Professor Sparks was a Visiting Professor at Florida State University from July 2000 to July 2001 and Visiting Professor at the University of Tennessee from June to December 2006. He is well-known for his research into aspects of retailing, undertaken on behalf of public and private clients, for the research councils and other funding bodies and for governments. He has authored and edited a number of books, has published over 125 refereed journal articles as well as many practitioner, trade and newspaper pieces and runs a Scottish retailing blog.

He has extensive expertise in international research and teaching including periods in Japan and Malaysia and especially in Singapore where Stirling has had active partnerships since the late 1980s.

Professor Sparks is the Chair of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, the “go-to” body for Scottish Government on matters to do with Scotland’s towns. He was a member of the External Advisory Group for the Scottish Government’s National Town Centres Review and a member of the Expert Advisory Group investigating the lessons of the horsemeat scandal for the Scottish Government. More recently, he Chaired the Government review of the Town Centre Action Plan and wrote the report ‘A New Future for Scotland’s Town Centres’. He has also been on the Ministerial Retail Strategy Task Force and The Social Renewal Advisory Board. Leigh is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Julian Taylor has a leadership role at the University of Strathclyde to identify and engage with international partners.  As part of this, Julian has been based in Singapore since 2022, setting up and running a regional hub for the University. His objectives are to identify and work with new business, university and government partners to develop collaborative relationships to achieve mutual benefit. His countries of focus are Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, but works across the wider region

Julian joined the University in 2020 after a 30 year career in economic development, most of it in senior leadership roles with Scotland’s national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise. For six years he led the trade and investment activity of the Scottish Government for the Asia Pacific region, based in Shanghai, with responsibility for teams based in China, India, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Australia and other counties throughout Asia.

Julian is a Globalscot – the Scottish Government’s world-wide network of senior business leaders and professionals that supports the development of the economy.

Yumiko Toda is Professor of Distribution Systems and Marketing in Japan at the School of Global Japanese Studies, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. Prior to her current appointment in 2022, she held academic positions at several institutions, including Assistant Researcher at Keio University (2001–2004), and Lecturer (2008–2015) and Associate Professor (2015–2022) at Nihon University.

She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Aoyama Gakuin University in 1999 and subsequently earned her Master of Arts (2001) and Doctor of Philosophy (2007) in Marketing from Keio University.

Dr Toda has held visiting academic appointments at several universities in the United Kingdom, including the University of Edinburgh and Coventry University in 2007, and the University of Stirling in 2016 and 2017. Her primary research interests centre on the historical development of marketing theory and practice in Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Her notable contributions include a series of academic publications on the history of Marks & Spencer, and a comprehensive study of the strategic alliance between Marks & Spencer and the Japanese supermarket Daiei during the 1970s and 1980s. The latter was recognized with the Best Paper Award from the Japan Society for Distributive Science in 2015. In the same year, her research on the reinterpretation of Japan’s distribution revolution received an award from the Japan Marketing Academy.

Dr Toda currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Japan Marketing History Review and holds executive roles as a Board Member and Committee Member in both the Japan Society for Distributive Science and the Japan Society of Marketing and Distribution. She has also been appointed to the Board of Directors of CHARM (Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing), an international scholarly association dedicated to marketing history, beginning in 2025.

Her current research focuses on the evolution of marketing and distribution system theory in post–World War II Japan, employing oral history methodologies to document and analyse the contributions of pioneering marketing scholars.

Thanasis studied Engineering and completed a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Oxford (2012). His research work focuses on the development and application of signal processing and statistical machine learning algorithms, having made key contributions in digital health. Outputs have been used by the NHS and a range of industrial partners, and featured in the media such as Reuters. He is Co-founder of the NHS Digital Academy, the first national digital health informatics leadership programme. He was a Turing Fellow (2021-2024) and an Inaugural Bayes Innovation Fellow (2023-2024). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. Personal Chair of Digital Health and Data Science, University of Edinburgh Thanasis studied Engineering and completed a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Oxford (2012). His research work focuses on the development and application of signal processing and statistical machine learning algorithms, having made key contributions in digital health. Outputs have been used by the NHS and a range of industrial partners, and featured in the media such as Reuters. He is Co-founder of the NHS Digital Academy, the first national digital health informatics leadership programme. He was a Turing Fellow (2021-2024) and an Inaugural Bayes Innovation Fellow (2023-2024). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.