Birmingham Rotaract

Join Rotaract on Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 for a Professional Development Series event with Samford University’s John C. Knapp, Ph.D.  Dr. Knapp will speak to our members about ethical challenges facing today’s leaders in a climate of declining trust in business, government and other institutions.  Dr. Knapp will discuss ethical issues as they relate to young professionals and ethical issues in the city of Birmingham.

The event will take place on Samford’s campus at the Frances Marlin Center for Ethics and Leadership.  Click here to download a campus map. Please arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m.  Refreshments will be provided.  The program will begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. and last approximately one hour.  Please register online to reserve your spot.

About John C. Knapp, Ph.D.

John C. Knapp, Ph.D., is University Professor and Mann Family Professor of Ethics and Leadership.  He serves as founding Director of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership, established in the Brock School of Business to support teaching, research and service across the Samford University campus.

Before joining Samford in 2008, he was Professor and Director of the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business, the fifth largest business school in the United States.  The center was established under his leadership 1993 and grew to become one of the nation’s leading resources for leaders seeking to strengthen ethics and integrity in organizations.

Internationally known as a featured speaker and seminar leader for business and professional organizations, Dr. Knapp contributes to public understanding of ethics through frequent interviews with such media as The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Sports Illustrated, Entrepreneur, National Public Radio, Financial Week and Bloomberg News Service. In 2009, at the invitation of Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, he was a major speaker and panelist at the Cairo conference, “Women, Leadership and Social Justice.”

His books include For the Common Good: the Ethics of Leadership in the 21st Century, a collection of essays by internationally recognized thinkers, and Leaders on Ethics: Real-World Perspectives on Today’s Business Challenges. He is co-editor of the three-volume series, The Business of Higher Education, an examination of issues facing universities amidst growing pressures to strengthen accountability and efficiency.  In 2009, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company will release his newest book, Worlds Apart: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done about It).

An active proponent of ethics in higher education, he is a member of the advisory boards of Clemson University’s Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics and Kennesaw State’s Siegel Institute for Leadership Ethics & Character. In 2005 and 2006 he directed the Oxford Conclave on Global Ethics, a conference for university presidents and other leaders held at England’s University of Oxford.  And in 2008 he co-directed the Stellenbosch Seboka on Higher Education and Ethical Leadership, a gathering of university leaders from throughout Southern Africa.

He earned the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Wales, United Kingdom, where he has been an Honorary Visiting Lecturer in the university’s postgraduate business program. He earned the Master of Arts, with distinction, at Columbia Theological Seminary and the Bachelor of Science at Georgia State University. He resides in the Birmingham area with his wife Kelly and their five children.