
Kon Karapanagiotidis
Empower your organization with Kon Karapanagiotidis, lawyer, human rights advocate, and founder of Australia’s largest independent human rights organization, inspiring action through compassion and leadership.
Empower your organization with Kon Karapanagiotidis, lawyer, human rights advocate, and founder of Australia’s largest independent human rights organization, inspiring action through compassion and leadership.
From overcoming adversity to founding Australia’s largest human rights organization, Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM inspires leaders to lead with empathy, resilience, and purpose. His keynotes empower organizations to transform compassion into action, ignite social impact, and build cultures rooted in authenticity and courageous leadership.
Keynote Speaker Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM is one of Australia’s most inspiring voices on leadership, empathy, and purpose-driven change. As the founder and CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), Australia’s largest independent human rights organization, Kon has dedicated his life to empowering others, building inclusive communities, and transforming compassion into action.
Having grown up as the child of Greek refugees in rural Australia, Kon’s story of resilience and determination embodies the transformative power of empathy and purpose. His extraordinary achievements, from earning six university degrees to raising over $250 million for humanitarian causes, make him a leading authority on how individuals and organizations can create lasting social and cultural impact.
Through his powerful keynotes, Kon helps organizations build cultures of empathy, inclusion, and courage, offering actionable tools for leaders to inspire trust, strengthen engagement, and drive purpose-led growth. His message resonates deeply with teams seeking to connect values with performance and lead change with authenticity.
Recognized with the Order of Australia Medal, Melburnian of the Year, and an Honorary Doctorate of Law, Kon brings both passion and proven impact to every stage. Book Kon Karapanagiotidis for your event to ignite purpose, inspire leadership, and empower your people to create meaningful change in the world.
Keynote by Kon Karapanagiotidis:
The power of leading with a values and a moral compass as a leader
Hear from a CEO of 25 years who has successfully led through one of the most contested and complex social issues of our time: refugees and immigration. There has never been a crisis, conflict or challenge in my career as a leader where being guided by my values and moral compass did not see me through to the other side. Always start with your values and what is the right thing to do according to our moral compass.
The power of authenticity and vulnerability as a leader
More than ever people are craving authenticity from their leaders, people that are free of the performative, people that are willing to tell it like it is and stand for something. By leaning into your authenticity and vulnerability as a leader you will inspire people to trust you, believe in you and follow you.
The competitive advantage that struggle and adversity gives you as a leader
We often see our trauma, the pain and hardship we have endured in our lives as the broken and damaged parts of us. Learn why they are in fact your power bank of resilience, your strength, your gifts and hear how you can unlock their power to fulfill your potential as a leader.
Keynote by Kon Karapanagiotidis:
How to survive a pandemic - the timeless lessons COVID taught us about how to do change management successfully
The COVID pandemic forced every business to change and adapt in ways unimaginable and at a speed once thought impossible. Those who not only survived but thrived learned the right lessons quickly and applied them. Protect your people and culture at all costs. Find a way to keep your doors open. Have a clear roadmap and plan so everyone is moving in the right direction with you and be transparent and accountable at all times as a leader.
Keynote by Kon Karapanagiotidis:
Its what we do not what we say as leaders that people hear the loudest
As leaders everything we do is a form of communication. Once there is an incongruence between the promise you are meant to be fulfilling as a leader and the reality of what your charity or business does in reality, your brand and business will suffer. What we often think of our social license to operate is rarely taken seriously by most charity and business leaders. We assume our brand, our offering, our market dominance will be enough but we don’t understand that each will erode and dissipate if we break our promise as leaders of what we and our business is meant to stand for.
Keynote by Kon Karapanagiotidis:
Transforming your workplace for success through the power of equity, diversity and inclusion: how to actually do it in practice.
Learn from a CEO of a large non for profit who transformed every level of his organisation to embrace a workforce where at least 50% were women and/or people of colour at every level of management and leadership. By transferring power and challenging his own privilege he was able to unlock untapped potential and success for his organisation to make it the market leader in his country.
DEI is your competitive advantage as a business not your burden
At a time where DEI is under attack globally, hear how those leaders who embrace it and follow through have the competitive advantage in the market place. DEI is not just lived experience, it is lived expertise that enables you to move faster, smarter and more successfully to meet the needs of your clients or customers while building a brand that stands out from the pack.
Keynote by Kon Karapanagiotidis:
Walk towards the fire: why doubling down on your values and purposes in times of crisis is how to thrive and build resilience
Too many leaders in a crisis cut their staff, their bottom life and their offerings. In doing so they vanquish their culture, trust, brand and purpose for being. Hear from a CEO who led his team through life and death scenarios during COVID and how he survived it by doubling down on everything he and his organisation stood for.
What to do when it all falls apart as a leader
Hear a CEO share how they went from having weeks before their charity was placed into liquidation to not only saving it but seizing the crisis to make it the most successful, resourceful and resilient it had ever been in the space of four weeks. .Hear how I not only saved my charity but led it to being the most successful it had ever been by doing the opposite of what everybody told me to in a financial crisis.
Keynote by Kon Karapanagiotidis:
The power of giving a damn as a leader
Giving a damn as a leader is the power of great leadership. It means to be a leader that is emotionally invested in what you do. To be guided by strong values, principles and integrity. It means to care passionately about the people you work for and with. To have a vision and be willing to fight for it. This is what motivates people to be at their best, to be engaged and to walk through the fire with you.