Leadership and its development within higher education remain a black box for scholars and practitioners, as its implications are not sufficiently theorized in the literature. Building on that notion, this paper aims to offer a theoretically grounded framework to understand the constituents and transition of leadership development in an economy that aspires to be a knowledge-based economy. The work is ethnographic in nature, and its empirical findings are derived from semi-structured interviews with academic leaders and experts who help shape the policies in higher education and its impact. The paper has implications for practitioners and policymakers in trying to align the higher education sector with the overall economic objectives of the nation.