Baroness Sue Campbell delivers guest lecture

Baroness Sue Campbell CBE - who in February wasnamed one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK by Radio 4's Woman's Hour -spoke on 'Creating a winning culture - howimportant is the environment to nurture success, particularly for women?' at the Lewis Jones Suite at Headingley CarnegieStadium.

The session brought together leaders in businessand sport to focus on the experiences of women who have achieved leadership rolesand to consider the factors that will increase the presence of women in seniorposts. In particular, the importance of the environment which supports andnurtures individual talent whilst enabling teams to thrive and support women tomake that critical breakthrough into leadership positions will be explored. Thelecture was followed by a question and answer session with an expert panel ofwomen who have leadership roles within their sectors. Panel members who joined Baroness Campbell were Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University,Professor Susan Price and Maddie Thompson, partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Baroness Campbell will step down as Chair of UKsport in May after coming to the end of the maximum 10-year tenure. At the helmof the elite sport funding bodyshe has been integral in ensuring thatTeam GB and Paralympics GB had the appropriate support which resulted in themlanding a record medal haul at the 2012 Games with Britain finishing third inthe tables at both the Olympics and Paralympics.

A former PE teacher, then sports science lecturer,Baroness Campbell was the chief executive of the National Coaching Foundationfor a decade and then the chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust (YST) for afurther 10 years.

Over the past decade, she has revolutionised theelite sport system in the UK through her continued chairmanship of the YST andchampioning the role sport can plan in schools and wider society. She hasrepresented her country as a player, a coach and a team manager in netball.

Supported by Yorkshire Bank,the lecture ispart of Leeds Met's 'Carnegie Conversations' guest lecture series, organised bythe University's Carnegie Faculty.

Future lectures to be held in the series include asession on Tuesday 7 May which will feature a Q&A where former BritishLions player John Bentley will interviewEngland Head Coach StuartLancaster; Gareth Davies, Dean of Leeds Metropolitan's Carnegie Faculty andformer Wales rugby captain and British Lions player and former British Lionscoach Sir Ian McGeechan. On Monday 3 June, Leeds Rhinos and Great Britaincaptain Kevin Sinfield will present while on Monday 1 July internationalcricketers Alec Stewart and Jason Gillespie will be interviewed by SouthAfrican cricketer Dave Callaghan about the impending Ashes series.

In 1980, Baroness Campbell was appointed RegionalOfficer for the East Midlands by the Sports Council of Great Britain. She movedto the National Coaching Foundation (NCF) where after a year she was appointedChief Executive. Her influence and achievements were already being recognisedand she was awarded an MBE in 1991 for services to sport. In 1995 she becameChief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust having played a key role in setting upthe organisation. She was awarded a CBE in 2003 and in April 2005 was appointedChair for UK Sport, the organisation responsible for world class Olympic andParalympic success in the UK following 18 months as the Reform Chair.