Ethics in the world of business is everything, according to the Josephson Institute of Business. Adding Christian beliefs into that has raised a question of whether businesses can abide by both.

Timothy Knight, founder of Knight & Associates Consulting, will give this year’s Gordon E. Heffern Lecture on Christian Ethics in Business at Ashland University on Thursday, April 11 at Redwood Hall. The event is free to the public and begins at noon.

Knight will be talking about how businesses can combine both worlds and how he himself has done that throughout his business practices.

Knight & Associates consulting was founded in August 2016 after Knight left Sherwin-Williams, which he was with for 22 years. It provides consulting services that emphasize leadership development to many different companies.

“Your reputation as a company, as a manager, as an employee rests upon that you would be doing trustworthy, ethical things in business,” said Dr. Joan Berry Kalamas, a professor of business at AU. “Your customers are going to rely upon that. If they can’t trust you, they’re not going to be working with you.”

The Gordon E. Heffern Lecture series is an annual event that invites a guest speaker to share their experiences in applying Christian ethics to their business.

According to Kalamas, the two can coexist well if the company’s well-being is first.

“You may have a faith-based background that may choose one thing, but in the business world, you may be forced to complete some other kind of task…that wouldn’t be by your own personal beliefs,” said Kalamas. “If the decision is not immoral or illegal, you may have to question whether this is the right decision fit for you.”

Aside from over 20 years in the world of business, Knight has served six years as an officer in the U.S. Army, being stationed in several places in Europe, Korea, and eventually served during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.