John Knapp

University Professor and Mann Family Professor of Ethics and Leadership

Director, Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership

(205) 726-4362 jknapp@samford.edu
Room 421 DBH

Mann Center Web Site

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).  

As a consultant to leading corporations, professional firms, universities, governmental agencies and medical providers, he has helped to address a wide range of sensitive issues, including product safety, work-force reductions, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, overseas labor policies, environmental impact, worker safety, executive misconduct and workplace violence.

Dr. Knapp’s scholarly work was recognized in 2009 when he was named a fellow of the international Caux Round Table; in 2007 with his induction into the Martin Luther King Jr. International Collegium of Scholars at Morehouse College; and in 2001 with the Georgia Governor's Award in the Humanities.  He has been an adjunct Professor of Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary, teaching courses in the doctoral program, and previously was Senior Scholar and Professor of Ethical Leadership at Kennesaw State University.  He is a member of the Alabama Humanities Foundation and the editorial board of the Journal of Business Ethics. He has contributed numerous articles to academic and professional publications.  

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. 

Earlier, he had a successful career in business, gaining extensive management experience for more than a decade as president of a corporate communication firm.  During this time, Atlanta Business Chronicle recognized him twice as the region's leading crisis management consultant; Business Atlanta (now Georgia Trend) selected him for its list of the "40 Under 40" most successful young executives; and Outstanding Atlanta Foundation named him one of the “Ten Outstanding Young People of Atlanta.”  A graduate of Leadership Atlanta and Leadership Georgia, he served as a board member for Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, where he was vice chair; Georgia Humanities Council; Society for Human Resource Management - Atlanta; Georgia Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns; Georgia Cooperative Services for the Blind; Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges; Atlanta Press Club; and Public Relations Society of America, Georgia Chapter; among other organizations.

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.