Rugby star to discuss his mental heath at business summit

One of rugby’s most renowned leaders is to headline a leadership summit at Titanic Belfast this month.

The event, which has been created by the Management & Leadership Network (MLN) and supported by Danske Bank and Belfast City Council, is expected to attract over 300 attendees.

Ensuring leaders look after their own mental heath is one of the topics that Nigel Owens will cover within his address. Owens has taken charge of some of the biggest fixtures in world sport including the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final. He is recognised globally for his levelled decision-making and ability to remain calm under pressure. He has been invited to speak to some of the most successful organisations on the planet but what sets him apart is that he speaks openly and emotively about challenging times within his own life and how the support of others has helped him through them.

Delegates will also hear from Alice Thompson who is co-founder of Social Bite and was pivotal in the establishment of ‘The World’s Big Sleepout’ which took place in 52 cities across the globe. The events saw 60,000 people sleep out on a cold December night to raise awareness and funds on the issue of homelessness. She will be joined on stage by serial entrepreneur and investor Mark Dowds who is setting out on a new journey to disrupt

the clothing industry and clean up the planet along the way. An early-stage investor in Uber, Mark is now founder and CEO of Responsible, a re-Commerce solution for fashion brands to drive a more circular future.

Also speaking will be Paediatric Surgeon Bill McCallion who adopts a leadership role when they stakes are at their highest and the outcome, on many occasions, is the difference between life and death. The event will be chaired by author and proven business leader Brendan McGurgan. Now co-Founder of Simple Scaling Ltd, a business which inspires and enables ambitious leaders of SMEs to Scale with Purpose, he spent 12 years as Group MD of CDE Global. During his tenure, CDE scaled profitably (from 15 people) to have offices in six continents employing almost 700 people across the world.

More information and registration is available at www.mln.org.uk/summit/.

The event is ‘in-person-only’ and will run from event which will run from 8am – 1.30pm on Friday, May 13.