Meet Heather
Community Development and Retail Leader
Heather Thomson is a consumer behaviour expert. As the executive director of the centre for cities and communities and partner at 13 Ways Inc., Heather has the opportunity to work first hand with businesses, community organizations, and municipalities to ensure local economies are thriving. Prior to her work with the University of Alberta and 13 Ways, Heather has worked at lululemon athletica, ATB Financial and started her career with McDonalds Restaurants.
Heather has helped dozens of communities and hundreds of businesses across North America. She is a sought after key-note speaker, successful fundraiser and looks for opportunities in every situation.
Heather is a proud mom of two boys, an avid snowboarder, and an advocate for gender parity and equity in the workforce.
A few highlights include:
- Employed hundreds of business students who have worked with more than 2500 organizations in the Edmonton region
- Has secured 1.3 million dollars in funding to support the local business community recover from the effects of the pandemic
- Helped create the new Centre for Cities and Communities
- Works with national media networks to deliver consumer behaviour research to the country
- Serves on the Edmonton Business Association and past member of Old Strathcona Business Association Economic Recovery Task Force
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"I love working with Heather. She is a visionary who pushes for bold & innovative ideas, and has an innate ability to persuade others to join her mission. Heather cares deeply about her work, but most importantly, about the people around her. I can't wait to work with her again!"
- Shawn Kanungo
Heather has the rare quality of being able to conceive of a brilliant, creative strategy and quickly turn around, execute, and get measurable results and outcomes. Her ability to connect with leaders and leverage strategic partnerships is magic.
- Lana Cuthbertson
“Heather is smart, creative, and realistic in her incredible work to build better local economies and better communities for the future. She combines her real-world experience and examples from retail giants with her thoughtful analysis of leading industry research to tell compelling stories and give tangible, meaningful advice that can help both retailers and communities thrive and adapt to changing consumer preferences and behaviours. Her passion and enthusiasm for building great communities is infectious and comes across in everything she does, and it makes her an absolute pleasure and a powerful force to work with.”