Leadership to Legacy: Loughborough Business School hosts Black History Month Forum with Black Excellence UK

A speaker introduces the Loughborough Business School Black History Month event.

As part of Loughborough University’s Black History Month celebrations, Loughborough Business School collaborated with Black Excellence UK to host the Leadership to Legacy: Building Futures with Purpose and Pride forum on Thursday 23 October.

Designed to bring together current and aspiring leaders from diverse professional backgrounds, the forum created space for sharing insights, lived experiences, and strategies for building futures rooted in purpose and pride.

Attendees included students, staff, and guests from entrepreneurial, corporate, academic, and political spheres. Featured guest speakers included Obi James, Professor Martin Tuuli, and Dr Ashiedu Joel.

The event was opened by Dr Sarah Barnard, Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, who highlighted the School’s commitment to inclusive leadership and how its guiding ethos of Progress with Purpose aligns with the values of Black Excellence UK.

The first speaker was Obi James, Founder and CEO of Obi James Consultancy and author of Let Go Leadership, who explored identity-led leadership. She urged attendees to consider how they show up within the systems they’re part of, even when those systems are unjust.

Speaker Obi James delivers a talk to the Leadership to Legacy event at Loughborough Business School.

Sharing her journey from corporate banking to launching her own consultancy, she spoke candidly about the moment she realised she was seen as ‘token’: “That experience of being dismissed pushed me to build something better, both for myself and for my children.”

She emphasised the importance of grounding leadership in personal values, especially in moments of uncertainty. Drawing on lessons from her upbringing, she spoke of resilience, humility, and the need to own your personal story: “If you aren't telling your story, someone else will be.”

Closing her talk, she said: “Leadership and charity begin at home. You have to do your own work first, be intentional. When you truly step into your leadership, there will be no other person like you, and we can collectively shape the world that we want.”

Professor Martin Tuuli, Director of Academic Staff at Loughborough Business School, offered a compelling talk on legacy through the lens of purpose, belonging, and community.

Professor Martin Tuuli delivers a talk to the Leadership to Legacy event at Loughborough Business School.

Professor Tuuli spoke of purpose as a living compass, one that evolves with life’s seasons and must be demonstrated through action, not slogans: “Progress with Purpose is not just about where we’re going, but why and who we’re taking along with us.”

“Degrees and titles are worthless without purpose,” he noted. “Any enduring legacy must be rooted in it.”

“You cannot build legacy in a space where you don’t feel like you belong, you belong not just because someone allowed you in, but because you earned it.”

He closed with a call to collective action: “Leadership is not accumulation, it’s multiplication. Legacy is not a monument but a movement, built daily, and passed on through the people we lift as we climb.”

Dr Ashiedu Joel delivers a talk to the Leadership to Legacy event at Loughborough Business School.

Dr Ashiedu Joel, Founder of Ashioma Consults Ltd, closed the forum by weaving together the powerful insights shared by Obi James and Professor Tuuli. She reminded attendees that leadership is not about titles, but about presence, purpose, and the shadow we cast: “What is it about your presence, your power, your position, that not only opens the door, but keeps it open with integrity for others to walk through?”

Reflecting on the forum’s theme, Dr Joel urged participants to move beyond visibility and into influence: “We need to become power brokers. Influence is how we shift and drive things forward.” She echoed the earlier speakers in affirming that leadership begins with self-awareness but must extend to community, accountability, and action.

Dr Joel also highlighted the emotional toll of being “the only one in the room,” and called for a culture of mutual support: “Regardless of where you are in your leadership journey, we are each other’s source of strength, inspiration, and accountability.”