Colette Cowan, Chief Executive Officer of UL Hospitals Group will deliver a lecture entitled ‘Lessons in Leadership, A Personal Story' at the first in the 2018 RCSI Institute of Leadership lecture series this evening.

The lecture takes place at 6pm in the Albert Lecture Theatre, RCSI, 123 St Stephen's Green.

Professor Ciarán O'Boyle, Director of the RCSI Institute of Leadership, said: "The Leadership Lecture Series explores the growing importance of leadership for professionals working in the health sector in Ireland. We are delighted to welcome Colette to give the first lecture of 2018. With a career spanning 30 years in health services, she has a wealth of experience in healthcare leadership."

Speaking in advance of the lecture Colette Cowan said:  "It is an honour to be invited to give the Lessons in Leadership lecture at the RCSI's Institute of Leadership, which is at the forefront of developing leadership and talent."

Colette Cowan was appointed Chief Executive Officer of UL Hospitals Group in November 2014. She leads an organisation providing acute health services to approximately 400,000 people in the Mid-West and with a workforce of approximately 3,500 staff spread across six sites in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. Since her appointment as Group CEO, she has been leading the reform agenda at UL Hospitals Group.

In March 2012, she was appointed Director of Nursing at Galway University Hospital before becoming the first Group Director of Nursing and Midwifery with the West North West Hospitals Group (now Saolta University Healthcare Group) eight months later. Previously, she was Director of Nursing in Nenagh, the youngest person ever in the country to have filled such a role.

Colette Cowan sits on a number of other groups and task forces at national level. These include the Department of Health (DoH) Policy on Trauma Network, the National Sexual Abuse Steering Group, the Reform Communications and Culture Oversight Group and the National Patient Experience Survey Programme. She is an adjunct professor of nursing and midwifery at NUI Galway.

The RCSI Institute of Leadership is Ireland's only third level institution dedicated exclusively to developing the leadership and management capacity of health professionals. While the Institute is an academic institution, it maintains close connections with the world of healthcare delivery. Its Masters programmes are characterised by flexibility, speed of response, customer service and a blended learning approach that allows students to learn while continuing to work. The Institute has campuses in Dublin, Bahrain & Dubai and it also delivers programmes in Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

RCSI is ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2018) and its research is ranked first in Ireland for citations. It is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, with its headquarters in Dublin, focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. RCSI is a signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter.