Equinox Talk: Kon Karapanagiotidis on Compassion in Action

Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM is the founder and CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and 2023 Melburnian of the Year.

Kon is a qualified Lawyer, Social Worker and Teacher and has been recognised for his community service with an Order of Australia Medal, and dozens of other awards including an Honorary Doctor of Laws and a Churchill Fellowship.

Kon is also a twice published author, his memoir ‘The Power of Hope’ by Harper Collins and his bestseller Greek cookbook ‘Philoxenia - A Seat At My Table’ co-authored with his mother, Sia Karapanagiotidis, by Hardie Grant Books. He is a keen gardener and cook, well known public speaker and advocate for a range of social causes.

Kon was the first to go to high school in his family, the son of Greek migrants and the grandson of Pontian refugees. Inspired by his own family's experiences of displacement, migration, racism and discrimination, this led to Kon being passionate about human rights and social justice. Kon has spent his life in service to the community since the age of 18, having volunteered in more than two dozen charities from Indigenous, youth, homeless, mental health, community legal centres to people living with HIV/AIDS and children’s charities.

At the age of 28 Kon founded his own charity, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in the space of 8 weeks as a class project with the TAFE students he was teaching at the time. It has since gone on to save and enhance the lives of thousands of refugees, change national laws, narratives and policies, engage with thousands of volunteers together with refugees to do this work.

Kon has also raised, with the incredible team at the ASRC, more than a quarter of a billion dollars through the support of hundreds of thousands of Australians to power the work of the ASRC, and help more than 30,000 people seeking asylum and refugees since it began, as a charity that takes no funding from the Australian Government on principle.

In conversation with Petrina Barson, Kon will explore 'Compassion in Action' - what motivates, sustains, challenges and energises him in his work.