Graham Soult Fipm
High-street Specialist @Roam
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WORK HISTORY
High-street Specialist @Roam
This position involves working with the Roam Local app on a part-time, contract basis to provide high-street insights that can feed into social media, articles and webinars - all with the aim of championing UK high streets, and encouraging more bricks-and-mortar businesses to embrace having a digital presence.
EDUCATION
The University of Sheffield
BA (Hons), Architecture
The University of Sheffield
MA, Architecture and Town & Regional Planning
UCL
Short course, Slovene
SKILLS
ABOUT GRAHAM SOULT FIPM
Based in Gateshead in North East England, I founded the retail consultancy CannyInsights.com in 2010, and have built a reputation as a high-street champion.I regularly travel around the UK, and have visited more than 600 retail centres across the country, picking up best practice at the same time as sharing my own advice and insights.My work to track what has become of former Woolworths locations – most recently manifested in my 2024 “#Woolies15” research report – has generated plentiful media coverage, and helped to shine a light on the evolution of the high street.In some locations, such as Durham, I am commissioned to work as a “Retail Cupid”, helping to increase occupancy and revitalise town centres by matching up vacant shops with the businesses that want to trade there.Described on BBC Look North as “the region’s best-known retail expert”, and by ITV as “a North East Mary Portas”, I am flattered to have been named as one of the most influential retail people on Twitter/X, where I have more than followers.I am a frequent keynote speaker on retail and high-street issues at conferences and seminars, and have appeared regularly on TV, on radio, and in the press, including BBC’s The One Show, BBC News, ITV News, LBC, The Guardian and Retail Week. Recent major TV appearances include the Netflix/Channel 5 documentaries “Inside Greggs 24/7”, “24 Hours in Tesco”, “24 Hours in Lidl”, and “Inside Greggs at Christmas”.As a passionate advocate for building strong networks and partnerships, I am also the chairman of Durham-based networking and office services organisation Durham Business Group.I hold a BA (Hons) in Architecture and an MA in Architecture and Town & Regional Planning from the University of Sheffield, and have been an elected Fellow of the Institute of Place Management (IPM), based at Manchester Metropolitan University, since 2018. IPM Fellow status is only available “to those that have reached a very high level of personal and professional achievement, within the industry.”I was also very proud to serve as an Expert within the High Streets Task Force, a government initiative, managed by IPM between 2019 and 2024, to support communities and local authorities in England in transforming their high streets and strengthening local place leadership.Outside of retail and place management, I have been attending the Slovene language short course at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) since 2022, and am currently studying in the third (Upper Intermediate) year, equivalent to CEFR-level A2.
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