Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Join us for the official launch of the Leeds City Challenge, a bold new initiative from Leeds Beckett University that invites students and recent graduates to develop innovative business ideas that tackle real challenges facing the city of Leeds.
This launch event will bring together civic leaders, university leadership, entrepreneurs, staff, and students to kick-start a programme focused on place-based innovation, inclusive growth, and real-world impact.
What to expect
The event will open with an introduction from Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Slee, followed by remarks from Professor George Lodorfos, Dean of Leeds Business School.
Attendees will gain insight into the Leeds City Challenge and learn how to get involved, hear a keynote address from Leeds City Council Chief Executive Ed Whiting OBE on the economic prospects of Leeds as a prosperous city, and explore reflections on the role of universities and entrepreneurship in supporting city growth.
The event will also provide opportunities to network with civic, academic, and industry leaders.
This event is open to business leaders and SMEs from Leeds and beyond, as well as external partners, entrepreneurs, civic stakeholders, and anyone with an interest in entrepreneurship, innovation, and the future of Leeds. The Leeds City Challenge is more than a competition; it is a platform for collaboration, creativity, and civic impact, bringing student talent to bear on the challenges that matter most to the city.
Ed was born and grew up in Leeds and started as Leeds City Council’s Chief Executive in January 2025. Ed has spent most of his career working in a number of central Civil Service Departments, including in the Financial Stability Unit of HM Treasury through the 2008-09 financial crisis and as Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister between 2014 and 2016. Most recently, Ed was Director for Cities and Local Growth, leading a joint unit shared between the Business and Communities Departments working on the Government’s local economic growth priorities.
Between 2016 and 2022, Ed was Director of Strategy at the Wellcome Trust, where he led the creation of a new strategy to solve the urgent health challenges of infectious disease, mental health and the impact of climate change on health. He developed new global policy and strategic partnerships functions and sponsored Wellcome’s new mental health research and equity, diversity and inclusion programmes.
Professor Peter Slee is Vice Chancellor at Leeds Beckett University, situated in the city of Leeds, in England.
Peter is Chair of the Leeds Anchors Network and is also a Board Trustee of CUMU, and a Board member of the Leeds Academic Health Partnership, the University Alliance, and Yorkshire Universities.
Peter was educated at the University of Reading, gained his PhD in Modern History from the University of Cambridge and taught history at the University of Manchester and Durham University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College Cambridge, and an award-winning author, teacher and trainer.
Peter joined Leeds Beckett from the University of Huddersfield where he had been Deputy Vice Chancellor since 2010. He has held a number of senior roles in higher education management in the UK at Northumbria, Durham and Aston universities and at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) where he was Head of Education Policy.
