Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the roles of leadership in enabling sustainability transformation of universities and higher sustainability management education. It advocates research into the role of leadership for a university’s sustainability transformation by exploring interactions between university members and institutional contexts. Design/methodology/approach – Using a case study approach, this study explores the sustainability transformation of a university and its influence on the MBA Sustainability Management by applying Mintzberg’s leadership framework. Findings – The findings suggest that leaders can strongly influence a process of change in mindsets, practices and curricula to incorporate sustainability into higher business education institutions. Whereas bottom-up leadership initiatives are crucial, leadership support from top management is seen as important to enable larger, more radical steps of transformation. Originality/value – It is worthy noting that in the medium run strategic leadership to develop good sustainability management education programs requires a consistent institutional commitment for sustainability.