XL Foundation, the charitable arm of XL Capital, has announced that XL has been named the principal sponsor of The Centre for Leadership's 'Future Leaders' Conference to be held next week.

The event will be staged on Tuesday at the Berkeley Institute, with the theme of 'Create Your Own Destiny'.

It is part of The Centre for Leadership's 'Women in Leadership' Conference, of which XL is also a sponsor, to be held the following day at the Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel.

Several 100 local high school students are expected to attend the Future Leaders Conference where they will hear from special guest speaker and presenter, Benjamin Zander, who has traveled the world lecturing on leadership using an unusual blend of stories, music and concepts.

He has appeared four times as a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he was presented with the Crystal award for 'outstanding contributions in the Arts and international relations'.

His best-selling book, The Art of Possibility, has been translated into fifteen languages. He was awarded the 2002 'Caring Citizen of the Humanities' Award by the International Council for Caring Communities at the United Nations.

XL's director of corporate social responsibility, Gavin Arton, said: "As XL has a primary focus on education in its philanthropic activities, we are pleased to be sponsoring this event. We hope that hearing from an acclaimed speaker such as Benjamin Zander will give our local high school students a fresh perspective on leadership and provide them with a new sense of possibility in their personal and professional aspirations."

The Centre for Leadership's Secretary Kendaree Burgess-Fairn added: "When planning the original conference, we felt a strong need to reach out to our future leaders and provide them with an opportunity to share in this learning experience.

"We are thrilled that XL has consented to sponsoring this event. Their sponsorship allows us to open the opportunity up to several hundred students, not just a select few."

High school students interested in attending the Future Leaders Conference should contact their school principals for more information.