Graduate Momentum: Growth & Sustainability

From tackling AI’s energy footprint to elevating in-career executives, Leeds graduate students are translating learning into real-world leadership.

This year, Leeds graduate students showed what impact looks like—driving sustainability innovation that scales solutions to urgent challenges and stepping into executive leadership roles that shape the future of business. 

Graduate students from Leeds and peer institutions competed in the Leeds Sustainability Case Competition to address a timely challenge: how to power AI responsibly. Concurrently, our Executive MBA celebrated its third graduating class and global rankings recognition, underscoring strong growth across our graduate portfolio.

Business Students Tackle AI’s Energy Challenge

Leeds hosted 39 teams from leading business schools—including Berkeley Haas, Chicago Booth, Duke Fuqua, and Columbia—for its annual Sustainability Case Competition. They tackled a timely challenge: how to power AI responsibly. CU Boulder’s “For the Bees” (MENV) team took first place; Leeds’ “The Green Beans” placed second.

For more than two decades, Leeds has emphasized sustainability, ethics, and social responsibility, and this event underscores how deeply those values are embedded in our culture.

Why it matters: students gain experience solving urgent business-environment challenges, preparing them to lead in sectors increasingly shaped by AI and sustainability.

From the C-Suite to the Classroom: EMBA Momentum

For seasoned professionals, from physicians and attorneys to CEOs and CISOs, the Executive MBA offers something rare: a program that speaks directly to their leadership crossroads. The degree is designed for executives who need advanced tools in strategy, innovation, and inclusion, but also a format that respects the demands of their careers.

Leeds’ EMBA meets that need through a hybrid structure with three in-person residencies each year, a lockstep leadership-innovation-inclusion curriculum, and executive coaching that ensures lessons translate to immediate impact on the job. A 10-day international residency caps year two, adding a global perspective to the experience.

Now in its third year the Leeds EMBA program graduated a diverse group of professionals who are more ready than ever to lead and elevate in their current fields. The program earned recognition in the QS EMBA rankings—including #5 among U.S. public university business schools for career outcomes and #49 globally for employer reputation.

“Whatever you’re learning today in the classroom, you can apply tomorrow at work,” said Lori Seward, faculty director of MBA programs—underscoring the program’s focus on direct, on-the-job impact.

Why it matters: small, tight-knit cohorts amplify peer learning and mentorship, while global immersion deepens cross-cultural leadership, which are exactly the capabilities employers value.