Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM

Kon Karapanagiotidis OAM is the CEO and Founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. He is proudly Greek, and grew up in a working class family in a small country town in Victoria. Kon's personal experience of racism and witnessing the exploitation of his parents in factories planted the seeds for his passion for human rights. He went on to become a lawyer, social worker and teacher.

Kon was a finalist for Australian of the Year in 2007. Other notable achievements include being invited to participate in the 2020 Summit in 2008, voted one of Australia's 20 'Unsung Heroes' as part of the launch of the new Portrait Gallery in Canberra, and voted as one of Melbourne's 100 most influential people in The Age's Melbourne Magazine.