1. 10 November 2009
Arlene Baker
The Shopping Center Group
14502 North Dale Mabry
Suite 301
Tampa, FL 33618
Dear Ms. Baker:
It is with great enthusiasm that I am writing this letter of recommendation for Mr. Sean "Buck"
Dwyer. I have known Mr. Dwyer for two and a half years and have served as his instructor in
four courses. In these instances, Sean has proven to be an excellent student who goes beyond
the formal requirements of a class or project in order to produce high level scholarly work.
Having known Buck for this amount of time, I know his career goals revolve around applying his
diverse knowledge of Geographic Information Systems to the areas of real estate and business
and as such this position, at The Shopping Center Group, would provide an excellent fit.
I have had the privilege of serving as Sean’s instructor in three Geographic Information Systems
courses and an Advanced Physical Geography course. From these experiences, I would rate
Sean in the top five percent of students in these classes. I base this assessment not only on the
high quality of his work, but also on his ability to synthesize abstract theoretical issues with
complex technical subject matter. His class projects were well developed and executed. His
work was on-time and professional. In these courses, Sean also demonstrated an insatiable
intellectual curiosity relative to applying geo-spatial technology to “real-world” problems. In
doing so, Mr. Dwyer would push the software as far beyond the limits as possible in order to
best represent the point he was trying to make. He is never one to let the technology drive his
ideas, but rather harnesses it to make the final product more robust and vibrant. Additionally
Sean has an uncanny ability to quickly assess technically difficult subjects, such as geo-coding
and network analysis, and apply them to real data and problems. He did just this on a project in
one of his GIS classes where we did a market analysis of the Minneapolis metro area in order to
find the best location for a big box store.
In this projects students were required to utilize several techniques and meld together many
datasets from several demographic and business sources in order to assess if there was enough
people to warrant a new store in the market area and identify where the best location for this
store would be. In my six years of teaching this comprehensive project to students, no student
has tackled this problem and been as deeply interested in the subject material as Mr. Dwyer.

2. In analyzing his data, Sean was able to statistically and cartographically ground his work to
better represent the story his data were telling. I have been impressed with Sean in his ability
to come up with creative ways in which to use GIS and his deep drive to understand the most
fundamental details of both concepts and techniques.
Having previously worked in the private sector using GIS for commercial real estate applications
for four years, I have observed other traits in Sean that I feel will serve him well in this line of
work. He has strong work ethic and drive to complete his work. I have observed him in a team
setting in which excelled and often took a leadership role where he guided the structure and
execution of projects. He also has a very deep love and curiosity about the topics he studies
and is also an individual that is quite good at expressing his ideas through writing and
presentation. Finally, Sean has a history of professional GIS experience as he worked for the
city of Bemidji as a student and developed a practical understanding of many of the planning
issues that he may encounter if selected for this position.
In sum, Mr. Dwyer has developed a set of research and technical tools that will serve he, and
the next project he chooses to engage, well. I have little doubt that Sean will produce work of
the highest caliber and represent any organization he works for in the best light. He is clearly
motivated, organized, and capable of succeeding in any challenge that is before him but
particularly those which revolve around business applications of GIS . With these things in
mind, I strongly recommend and support Sean Dwyer for a position with the Shopping Center
Group.
If you wish to further discuss Mr. Dwyer's qualifications, please contact me at (218) 755-2805 or
at jueland@bemidjistate.edu.
Sincerely,
Jeff Ueland, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor