The third Leadership Innovation Forum 2026 will examine Qatar’s experience in education, infrastructure, and oil and gas for lessons on building institutions that sustain success beyond leadership changes. Announcing the details at a press conference, the QLC said the forum will take place on October 28, 2026, under the patronage of HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Chairperson of the QLC Board of Directors. Organised by the Qatar Leadership Centre (QLC) the forum will be held under the theme “Strategy Before Execution: Building Institutions That Endure Beyond Their Leaders”. The forum will explore how strategic planning, governance and institutional culture can help organisations preserve their achievements and continue developing after their founders or senior leaders leave. Abdulla Mohammed Khalifa al-Binali, Director General of the QLC, said the forum reflects the Centre’s commitment to advancing leadership thought and encouraging the exchange of expertise across sectors. “Successful leadership is not limited to achievements realised during one’s tenure; rather, it extends to building institutions capable of sustaining success through successive leadership transitions,” he said. “Through this forum, we aim to embed the importance of strategic thinking and facilitate the exchange of experiences that support institutional sustainability and capacity building.” Qatar Media Corporation will support the forum’s media presence and help communicate its mission and objectives. The partnership, the Centre said, underlines the role of national media in spreading leadership knowledge, showcasing inspiring institutional experiences and bringing key ideas to a wider audience, fostering dialogue on the future of leadership and institutional sustainability. Professor Steven Wright, director of the Leadership Knowledge Base at QLC, said the edition would address the fundamental question of what makes an institution last beyond the people who established it. “This one really is challenging. It’s challenging; ultimately the key question, the ultimate question and the ultimate test for leaders is whether they are actually building institutions that last and have a legacy of success for the future,” he said. Wright explained that the 2026 edition builds on the previous two forums, which examined innovation and decision-making.“In 2024 we looked at how leaders innovate, in 2025 we looked at how leaders decide, and now we ask the ultimate question of what leaders leave behind and how that is the measure of success,” he said. The forum will use Qatar’s institutional development as a series of case studies, examining how organisations have built resilience and sustained their achievements across generations of leadership. Wright identified education, infrastructure, and oil and gas as three key areas for discussion. The education panel, titled “The Roots of Knowledge”, will examine how Qatar’s education institutions developed in response to national needs, beginning with teacher training, and how they have contributed to building a wider education ecosystem. “Education is what builds the people and has the legacy in that area,” Wright said, adding that the discussions would consider how the country’s experience could inform future leadership. A second panel will focus on infrastructure, exploring the scale of Qatar’s development and the leadership decisions that have sustained achievements over time. The third will examine the oil and gas sector, focusing on the long-term economic decisions and strategic vision that have contributed to Qatar’s development and its position in the global energy industry. Wright said the discussions would consider the decisions behind these achievements and the lessons future leaders could draw from them. “By bringing those together we’re ultimately asking the question of how success can be achieved beyond the founders of those institutions, which is the ultimate test for leaders to achieve,” he said. Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari, Public Relations manager at QLC, said the forum was designed to help participants connect vision and strategy with effective implementation and share practices that support more resilient, sustainable institutions. He stressed that institutional sustainability depends on more than quickly implementing initiatives. “The real challenge lies in their ability to continue achieving results and preserving their gains after leadership changes,” al-Kuwari said. He said the forum would highlight the importance of long-term planning, developing competencies, documenting institutional knowledge, preparing second-tier leaders and establishing governance systems that ensure continuity. Al-Kuwari added that the event aimed to move beyond theoretical discussion by producing ideas participants could apply in their workplaces, particularly in strategic planning, governance, and preparing future leaders. The programme will also include strategic leadership workshops for QLC alumni, along with discussions aimed at strengthening professional networks and encouraging the exchange of experience across sectors. The forum aims to establish a recurring platform to examine the future of leadership and institutional development, with its central question extending beyond what leaders achieve during their tenure to what remains after they leave.