Stepan Kerkyasharian

STEPAN  KERKYASHARIAN 

Renowned philanthropist, Deputy Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Diocesan Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church, President of the Anti-Discrimination Board, a state and public figure Stepan Kerkyasharian is the great-grandson of Reverend Hakob Kerkyasharian, Arch Priest of Hadjin, Cilicia.

 Dr. Stepan Kerkyasharian was born in Nicosia (Cyprus). His parents, Manuel and Zaruhi (Karaian) Kerkyasharian, survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915. He received his primary education at the Melikian-Ouzounian school in Cyprus and high school at the local “English School” of Cyprus. At the age of 17, he left for England alone and along with working, studied electronics there. At the same time, he took an active part in the life of the Armenian diaspora. In 1967, he married Brenda Arratoon and migrated to Sydney, Australia; Brenda passed away in 1988. In 1998, he married Hilda Kayikian. Stepan has significantly contributed to Armenian and Australian public and state activities. He has three children: Massis, Karyne, and Emmanuel, and four grandchildren.

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT  

1979-1989: Head, Founding Director of Radio Division of Australia’s ‘Special Broadcasting Service’, which, when he left, was broadcasting through a network of 52 radio stations in more than 60 languages; 

1989-2014: Chairman and Chief Executive of the New South Wales Community Relations Commission; 2003-2015: President and Chief Executive officer of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board; 2015-2022: inaugural Chair of the New South Wales Cemeteries Board;

 2019-2020: Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Community Languages Schools of New South Wales to the Minister of Education; Since 2020: Deputy Chair of the National Australia Day Council;

 1990-2003: Member of the NSW State Board of Studies;

 1995-2000: Chair of the Multicultural Advisory Committee of the Sydney-2000 International Olympic Games Committee;

 1998-2000: Attache of the Republic of Armenia to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games

2000-2012: Member of the Australian Medical Council’s panel on examining the appeals against the results of the Medical Certification Exams; 

1996-1998: Member of the Ministerial Appeal Committee of the Police Academy;

 2010-2014: Member of the NSW State CEO’s Counter Terrorism Committee; 2010-2014: Member of the Australian and New Zealand Interstate Counter Extremism Subcommittee; 2013: First Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia in Australia; 

2018-2020 and ongoing: Deputy Chair of the NSW Federation of Community Language Schools; 

2018-2019: Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Authority on Community Languages and other boards and committees.

 ARMENIAN DIASPORA  / PUBLIC ACTIVITY 

1958: ordained as orarion of the Armenian church, Cyprus

1961-1964: permanent correspondent in London of Hayrenik Daily and Armenian Weekly published in Boston, United States of America; 

1964-1965: Secretary of the Armenian Youth Association of London;

 1965: Edited and published SLAK (selak) satirical periodical in London;

 1968-1970: Headmaster of the one-day-a-week Armenian language ‘Tarkmantchats’ school in Sydney; 1974-1976: Headmaster of the one-day-a-week Armenian language ‘Papazian’ school in Western Sydney;” 

1976-1979: founding coordinator and host of the first Armenian radio program broadcast in Sydney by radio station 2EA of the Special Broadcasting Service;

 2014-2019: Chair of the Sydney Armenian Church Welfare Society; Since 2013: Deputy Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Diocesan Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Stepan Kerkyasharian has been invited on many occasions to deliver lectures at international entities in England, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Japan, China, Korea, South Africa, and other countries. For decades, he has published political and social articles in the Australian press and has given numerous speeches and interviews on both Australian and international platforms, TV and radio stations. In 2014, Stepan Kerkyasharian and his wife, Hilda Kayikian-Kerkyasharian, established the perpetual ‘Kerkyasharian-Kayikian Scholarship Fund for Armenian Studies’ at the University of Sydney, Australia, through a donation of $250,000.00. At the initiative and through the charitable efforts of Stepan and Hilda Kerkyasharian, a 2.6 m high khachkar (stone cross) dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide was erected in front of the St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Sydney and blessed by the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney on 18 December 2018. Stepan Kerkyasharian and his wife, Hilda, are patrons of various philanthropic initiatives, charities, and publications in Armenia, Artsakh, Australia, and elsewhere.