Meet our 12 Inspirational Women Leading Business Education 2024

Lisa Leander serves as the Founder & CEO of Women in Business Education, a worldwide initiative with over 380 members dedicated to advancing women’s leadership within business schools. Before assuming this role, she was an international development and management expert, spearheading projects across 23 countries.

By day, you’ll often find her conducting professional development courses, shuttling her daughters to various sports practices, or attempting to train a high-energy German Shepherd.

What do you love about your work? 

The people. Period. End stop. Do not pass go.

Oh wait, did you want more detail than that?

For two decades I’ve pursued various professional paths, from economic development and international trade to higher education, working in over 23 countries. 

On my resume, it looked like I had achieved everything I wanted from my degree. The corner office with windows, a team across several states, but I always felt like I was still searching – that the work I was doing still didn’t fit.  

I was leading, but it wasn’t the heartfelt leadership I was looking for.

Turns out, I wasn’t cut out for a conventional career. I was destined for a calling: to lead and launch Women in Business Education.

Now my focus is championing women, advocating for gender equity, and amplifying diversity in business school leadership. Building this community of thought leaders has been an extraordinary privilege, disrupting norms and inspiring change.

They say you should never be the smartest person in the room and that the strongest leaders surround themselves with those who push and challenge them. I’m surrounded by brilliant, independent women and supportive male allies, from global partners to our new members’ fresh faces each week. 

We’ve created a vibrant global community that fuels my creative drive and encourages me to do more.

Beyond your qualifications, what qualities do you believe have helped you in your career journey to the role you hold now? 

Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have supportive bosses and challenging roles that pushed me to grow. However, I’ve also encountered numerous dead-end positions that filled me with dread every morning.

I am talking DREAD.  

But even in those dark moments filled with self-loathing and doubt, I learned from an early age that there is opportunity everywhere. Most of us are climbing up a ladder and always looking up at someone above us.  

Instead, I found success by jumping off the ladder, picking up a shovel, and starting to dig for gold.    

In my teens, my family relocated to a small town near Sacramento, California, where internships were scarce. Despite this, at age 20, I found work with an entrepreneur and helped launch his first school. Fast forward two decades, and it’s now a thriving private community college. I played an important role in its founding, from crafting the initial business plan to securing the bank loan.

I started my career in a town I thought had no opportunity.

Later in my 30’s I was hired to run a huge successful women’s accelerator program.  Unexpectedly our funder pulled the grant and the entire program was paused when I was only three months into the position. My full-time project disappeared overnight with one email.

I used all of this free time to learn Salesforce and then volunteered to lead the digital transformation across the entire office. I now use those same technology skills to run and manage hundreds of WiBE members worldwide.  

As a leader in technology, I joined Women in Tech, which influenced me to build and launch Women in Business Education.

If you are stuck in the no-good, dead-end, toxic culture and you really can’t leave, I encourage you to pick up that shovel.  This can look like taking on a project outside your department or volunteering to be on a non-profit board.  

“While we haven’t broken that last elusive glass ceiling (yet!), it is refreshing to see so many opportunities and workplace flexibility for parents and women leaders in business and business education.”

– Lisa Leander, WiBE

Stop looking up at the limited spots open for promotion above you and dig, dig, dig for those opportunities lying just beneath the surface.

Gender parity in business education – and in business – is a far more possible reality than it once was, but progress is still slow. What more do you think needs to be done to make such aims achievable? 

As a mother of two girls, achieving equal opportunity hits close to home. 

One of the things I have realised in WiBE, is It is so important for women in typically male-dominated roles to be visible.

I remember when my oldest was five and working on her “careers” project in kindergarten. I told her she could be anything she wanted. Then she looked at me seriously, went and pulled out her math ruler, and told me, “Not for President I can’t. Look, it’s all boys.”  

The ruler she was holding showed photos of all of the US Presidents in a timeline. Even as a kindergartener, the visible messages we give young girls can speak louder than words.

While we haven’t broken that last elusive glass ceiling (yet!), it is refreshing to see so many opportunities and workplace flexibility for parents and women leaders in business and business education. We have made huge strides since I was in college in the 1990s.  

That is not to say that there aren’t huge mountains we still need to climb.

In business education, a majority of women enter the highest level of leadership as Interim Deans. In the last three years, I have seen this over and over again: starting as an internally appointed Interim Dean, then hired into dean, whether at their institution or elsewhere.

I would like to see a cultural shift to hiring and promoting from within. We have to disrupt the belief that an outsider is always better. 

Additionally, the world is moving way too fast for one to two-year search committees. Especially for positions that are only typically three years in length. Corporations would never wait this long to replace a CEO.  It is disruptive and curtails progress.   

Moving and disrupting family life is one of the greatest barriers to women’s desire to enter leadership roles in business education. More opportunities to be promoted from within would allow more women willing to apply and step into these roles.

What do you read or view for ideas and inspiration?

I am the definition of a growth mindset. I am an avid reader and I love online courses. I’m currently in two online courses I need to muddle my way through this week.  

Saturday mornings I always try to dedicate myself to my own professional development by watching a course or reading a book. I run an organisation focused on professional development, so this is deeply ingrained within me.

My favourite? I love going to the new books section of the library and checking out all of the newly released but random how-to books. Crocheting – why not? This could come in handy when I retire?! How to take care of your pet frog? Never had one, but maybe one day I will! Coding for dummies? Always dreamed of building my own website. Parenting, healthy living, international cookbooks, creative design, interior design, new software…  

A curious and creative mindset means you are always looking for similarities and congruences in the most unexpected places. 

I am particularly drawn to books authored by unexpected business success stories, individuals whose achievements defy conventional expectations. Such as the music mogul, the Etsy millionaire, and the politician turned businesswoman. Those who are challenging norms and pursuing their own unique path to success.

I also stop by the travel section and come home with several travel books. This year? Melbourne, Rome & Barcelona. I always try to do something fun on our work trips and I love reading history.

I find inspiration through the odd, the different, and the quirky.   

Do I read loads of women’s empowerment or leadership books? Michelle Obama? Melinda Gates?  Ironically, not really. It’s not the celebrity who inspires me, but the ordinary individual who is doing it anyway and finding success on their own terms.

Unfortunately, this is a costly hobby. I am better at checking out books than getting around to reading them and returning them. I am notoriously bad at late fees, and the new books section is limited to only two weeks, with no renewals!  Which reminds me, I have three late books sitting right here I need to return.  

But I encourage all of you to find inspiration from the unexpected.

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