In this paper we discuss the need for a practitioner–academic partnership in disseminating leader knowledge among undergraduate management students, and find that in order to cultivate actionable skill development, business and academic communities should collaborate to offer a participatory approach to leadership education. The core objective is to discover sources of actionable knowledge and to decipher its optimum dissemination among management students, encompassing technical, conceptual and human kill development, through interaction with both theory and practice, in order to prepare students for active participation, and potential leadership, in the business environment. Based on a comprehensive literature review, we propose a participatory leader knowledge dissemination model, where business leaders can stimulate the academic environment, and leadership skill development can be promoted through practitioners’ active involvement in the education process. The article concludes with a perspective on the evolution of knowledge transfer among management students and the current trend towards dynamic collaboration between academics and corporate leaders.