Timothy L. Fort

Timothy L. Fort holds the Eveleigh Professorship in Business Ethics and is Professor of Business Law & Ethics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He is also an Affiliated Scholar of Business Ethics at the Kroc Institute. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. and JD from Northwestern University. He taught at the University of Michigan from 1994-2005 and at George Washington University from 2005-2013. 

Fort has written over eighty articles and eleven books, and has edited an additional twenty-four books. Two of his books have won the Best Book Award from the Academy of Management for Social Issues. He has won twelve research awards from three different academic associations: the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, the Society for Business Ethics, and the Academy of Management. He has also served on the editorial boards of the flagship journals of each of these associations. 

Fort has won five teaching awards and has served as academic director for a unique program for players from the National Football League; he also co-taught a course with then-Federal Reserve Chair, Ben Bernanke. He has served as director of an institute, as department chair, and as an interim associate dean, and has been a coach/consultant for Alexandra, Countess of Fredriksborg (Denmark) in her role as a member of the Board of Directors of Ferring Pharmaceuticals. 

Fort’s primary research interest concerns how ethical business conduct can create positive organizational cultures, which in turn foster sustainable peace. He co-chaired a task force on the topic with the U.S. Institute of Peace and helped to develop a program with the U.S. State Department where MBA students served as pro bono consultants to entrepreneurs in conflict-sensitive zones.  

He has extended that work to music, sports, and film to create a research stream of “Cultural Foundations of Peace” where cultural artifacts serve as a nudge to make ethical decisions and to provide common ground for individuals who might otherwise disagree on social issues. He has organized multiple conferences with faculty from the Jacobs School of Music, co-edited a book, written two articles, and organized a film series with the IU Cinema to further these efforts.