Leadership in Sport
An immersive leadership development program that delivers in-depth insights and provides the tools needed to lead and succeed at the highest level, in both sports high-performance and sports business.
Institute of Sports Humanities
Learn to think smarter, make better decisions and lead with bravery.
Leadership in sport today relies on studying innovative ideas across the world. Finding "an edge" (both sports performance and sports business) increasingly rests on critical and creative thinking and, in an era of ultra-specialisation, the ability to see the bigger picture.
This course is a fantastic opportunity to broaden your knowledge of the industry, develop your executive skills and build your industry network.
"ISH is delighted to launch this course with MBS"
"Building on three successful years in London, Melbourne, a great sports city, is the perfect venue, and MBS, with its unique leadership insights, is the perfect partner.
As a global education network, ISH believes in exploring leadership and decision-making through an international and interdisciplinary lens and we are very excited about this new chapter in Australia.”
Ed Smith
Director & Co-Founder
The Institute of Sports Humanities
A partnership in leadership development
“As leaders in leadership in Australia, we are proud to partner with a globally focused institute to help people at all levels of sport improve their game.
By combining the best principles of success in business and sport, this exciting program will develop agile and dynamic leaders who can help people perform at their best on and off the field.”
Prof. Ian Harper AO
Dean
Melbourne Business School
Who Should Attend the Leadership in Sport Program?
Working in the Sports Industry
- High performance leaders or sports business leaders currently working in the industry or sporting environment.
Want to Work in the Sports Industry
- Passionate leaders across business who wish to work in the sports industry.
Athletes and Coaches
- Current and former athletes and coaches transitioning into next career steps.
Key Takeaways From This Leadership Short Course
Improve Decision Making
- Superior conceptual frameworks supporting better decisions
- Reconciling objective and intuitive decision making processes.
Drive Strategic Advantage Through Data Analytics
- Framing the right question
- The role of creativity in the age of AI
- Data analytics to empower leadership narrative.
Leadership
- Responsiveness to social trends
- Decode the signals derived from history
- Innovation by harnessing globalisation
- Interrogate transferrable leadership insights.
Learning Methods

Immersive Face-to-face Development Opportunities

Online Masterclasses

Presentations by World-class Sporting Leaders and Academic Faculty

Peer-learning Groups

Self-paced Asynchronous Online Content
Leadership in Sport Key Facilitators
Additional masterclasses from world-class leaders drawn from across sport.
DIRECTOR AND CO FOUNDER INSTITUTE OF SPORTS HUMANITIES
As a professional cricketer, he captained Middlesex and played for England. He was chief selector for England cricket from 2018-21. His fifth book, Making Decisions - putting the human back in the machine, is published by HarperCollins in September 2022.
DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE OF BUSINESS ANALYTICS AND ASSOCIATE DEAN, BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Yalçın Akçay joined Melbourne Business School in 2017 and is currently the Director of the Centre for Business Analytics and Associate Dean, Business Analytics.
CONSULTANT DIRECTOR
With expertise in leadership development, group dynamics, conflict resolution and change, Aviva works with organisations and leaders to lift performance and shift culture through building inclusive, energised and thriving workplaces.

Paula Robinson
AWARD WINNING LAWYER AND SENIOR SPORTS ADMINISTRATOR
Paula was a key advisor to the Queensland Government’s bid to secure hosting rights to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is now part of the senior leadership team charged with delivering the event. Paula also worked on the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and the Sydney 2018 Invictus Games.
FORMER AUSTRALIAN RUGBY UNION PLAYER, AUTHOR AND BOARD MEMBER
Former Australian rugby union world cup winning captain. John is the Chair of ASX listed company Trajan Group Holdings and sits on the Boards of Flight Centre Travel Group and Magellan Financial Group. He is also author of two books including Learning from Legends Sport and Learning from Legends Business.

Eddie Jones
RUGBY UNION COACH
A 73-per-cent winning ratio from 2015–2022 makes Eddie England’s most successful Rugby Union Head Coach, who took them to the 2019 Rugby World Cup (RWC) and two Six Nations titles. He also coached Japan to the 2015 RWC, advised South Africa’s Springboks in their 2007 RWC win and took Australia to the 2003 RWC final.
AWARD WINNING JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR
World leading thinker on football and globalisation. His books include Soccernomics, Barca and Football Against the Enemy. Dutch born, resident in Paris and writer for the FT, Kuper has explored how the movement of ideas constantly reshapes modern sport in a wide range of settings.
PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS STRATGEY
Geoff Martin joined Melbourne Business School in 2012 and is now a Professor of Strategy. Geoff teaches Business Strategy, Corporate Strategy and the Social Entrepreneurs units on the MBA and Executive MBA programs.
ASSOCIATE, MELBOURNE BUSINESS SCHOOL, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
Former elite Australian rules footballer, television and radio sports commentator. Catalyst for the first-ever national women’s football competition, the AFLW, as AFL Victoria’s Female Football Development Manager.
SPORTS DATA ANALYST AND NOVELIST
Nathan has built and applied pioneering data models for international sporting teams and has worked for international teams as well as at the IPL. He is the author of the award-winning book Hitting Against the Spin.
An Innovative Education Partnership
Upcoming Sessions
This is a non-residential program. The program fee covers tuition and meals during the workshop.
Read our full terms and conditions and other frequently asked questions for more information.