Paralympic star inspires business leaders
Published 3 October 2012
Tanni Grey-Thompson with Ian Gordon Head of the Lancaster Forum and David Evans of Mazars.
Baronness Grey-Thompson DBE, one of the most successful Paralympic athletes of all time addressed Lancaster University’s business community last week.
Tanni’s career has taken her around the world to every major international event. Her 13 Paralympic medals, six gold medals in the London Marathon and her comprehensive set of British and World Records make her achievements second to none in the disability sport arena.
On 25th September, Tanni was welcomed into Lancaster University Management School to address an audience of 130 business owner-managers with her talk, “Seize the Day”. The talk was part of the Lancaster Forum – The Management Schools’ business alumni network.
Tanni spoke about the level of dedication and the mindset you must adopt to drive success at the highest level. She spoke about highlights of her career, her appointment to the House of Lords where she serves as a non-party-political crossbench peer and gave insights into this year’s Olympic and Paralympic games.
Ian Gordon, Head of the Lancaster Forum said, “With the buzz of the Olympic and Paralympic games we knew that having Dame Tanni as a speaker would be extremely inspirational for our members. It’s not every day you get to meet someone who has achieved so much both on and off the track and her attitude and ambition is infectious. We all went away feeling like we could adopt some of her advice back into our own lives and businesses to make changes for the better.”
The Lancaster Forum is a network of owner-managers who have all been supported by Lancaster University Management School through one of their business support programmes such as LEAD. At the heart of the Forum is a series of inspirational masterclasses from world-class leaders. Wrapped around these sessions is the opportunity to access University expertise and network with like-minded business owners and the University’s wider network of contacts.
The Tanni Grey-Thompson masterclass was sponsored by global accountancy, consultancy and audit firm Mazars. Ian Gordon said: “We are extremely excited to have Mazars on-board with the Lancaster Forum. We believe that supporting SMEs and helping them grow is critical for the success of the economy. Getting the backing of global firms such as Mazars that recognise they can help contribute towards this is very important to us.”
For further details on the Lancaster Forum and its line-up of speakers please visit the website.
