Can late 20thC corporate managerialism address the competing needs of the 21stC entrepreneurial transnational university? Universities now operate under conditions of liquid modernity as knowledge-based economies are increasingly characterized by flexibility, fluidity and mobility (Bauman 2005) in ways that are gendered, classed and racialised (Reay 2004). The paper draws on critical theories of organisational change, Bourdieu’s cultural capital and habitus, prior research on educational governance (Blackmore 2011), feminist research methodologies (Smith 2006) and critical policy sociology (Allen et al 2010). Data arises from a three year study investigating disengagement with, and lack of diversity in, university leadership in four Australian universities. It argues that the processes of corporatization – marketization, managerialism and privatization – have radically changed universities, constraining leadership to promoting academic capitalism rather than civic leadership while undermining equity within academy. Allen, E. et al (2010) Reconstructing policy in Higher Education: feminist poststructural perspectives Routledge Blackmore, J. (2011) Bureaucratic, corporate/market and network governance: shifting spaces for gender equity in education Gender, Work and Organisation 18(5) Reay, D. (2004) Cultural capitalist and academic habitus: classed and gendered labour in UK Higher education Women’s Studies International Forum 27 , 31-9 Smith, D. (2006) Institutional Ethnography: a sociology for people. Rowman