Sporting stars to speak at public lectures

The five free sessions organised by the university's Carnegie Faculty, entitled 'Carnegie Conversations', are open to the public and will tackle themes ranging from how to create a winning culture to coaching and performance. They will all be held in the Lewis Jones Suite at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, from 5.30pm-7pm on various dates from February to June.

The first lecture, entitled 'Inspirational Leadership - from sport to business and back', is to be hosted by sports commentator and Olympic medallist Steve Cram MBE and will take place on Wednesday 20 February. He will discuss how to apply sports principles that create leadership best practice and explore how sport and business arenas can work together to create excellence.

On Tuesday 5 March, Dave Bunting MBE will give a guest lecture called 'Decision making in extreme situations - Everest West Ridge'. In 2006 he led a team of elite climbers on a ground-breaking expedition to become the first British team to climb the formidable and rarely attempted West Ridge of Mount Everest. This highly publicised expedition earned Dave an MBE for his outstanding leadership and was filmed for a televised documentary Everest: Man v. Mountain. He joined Leeds Metropolitan University in 2011 as part of the Carnegie Great Outdoors specialist team who provide a variety of leadership, team building and personal development activities for internal and external clients, including the Royal British Legion, Adidas UK, Unilever, Teenage Cancer Trust and the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.

On Tuesday 9 April, Baroness Sue Campbell of Loughborough CBE will deliver the lecture, 'Creating a winning culture - how important is the environment to nurture success, particularly for women?'. The event aims to bring together leaders in business and sport to focus on the experiences of women who have achieved leadership roles and to consider the factors that will increase the presence of females in senior posts.

England rugby union Head Coach Stuart Lancaster will join Gareth Davies, Dean of Leeds Metropolitan's Carnegie Faculty, former Wales rugby captain and British Lions player, on Tuesday 7 May, when they jointly host a Q & A session entitled 'Sharing international rugby perspectives - player meets coach'.

This will be followed by a session on Monday 3 June, which will see Leeds Rhinos captain, Kevin Sinfield, speak on the topic of 'Success is more than ability'. During his ten years as captain, he has led the club in the most successful era in their history, appearing in 17 major finals, winning a historic six Super League titles in nine years, three World Club Challenge titles and two League Leaders.