John
Konrads

Speaker Profile

John Konrads represents a unique mix of sporting legend and senior business executive.

He astounded the sporting world when at the age of 15 he broke all world freestyle records from 200m to 1500m. Together with his sister Ilsa, the “Konrads kids” dominated the record books during the late 50s and early 60s.

John represented Australia at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games, winning gold in the 1500m freestyle at the Rome Olympic Games and bringing home 3 gold medals from the 1958 Commonwealth Games.

His status as a swimming legend is recognised by the International Hall of Fame, the Australian Sports Hall of Fame and at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre.

John also has a distinguished career in Australian corporate life. For more than a decade he was Chief Executive of the Australian operations for the world’s largest personal care products company, L'Oreal, during which time he dramatically increased sales and market share. He went on to be General Manager Marketing for Ansett in the lead up to airline deregulation. More recently he was Head of Melbourne Major Events Company where he was responsible for attracting many high profile events to the City of Melbourne including the Grand Prix.

Returning to the Olympic City of Sydney, John now applies his experience and skills in executive career management and retains active sporting interests as a Director of the Cook + Phillip Park aquatic and fitness complex in Sydney’s CBD.

He is a Board Member of the Black Dog Institute, an organization supported by the NSW Government which addresses the diagnosis, treatment and de-stigmatisation of mental disorders. Coincidentally, in 2001 he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Successfully treated, he now contributes much of his time to mental health issues.

John’s experience, success and skills as a communicator across the business, sporting and mental health spectrums allows him to bring unique insights into enhancing the performance of individuals and teams.

The themes of his speeches draw fascinating parallels between the principles of success in sport and the corporate world, and he provides perspective with meaningful and relevant anecdotes.

In recent years, John has been in demand to speak about depression and bipolar disorders. The themes include his personal victory over the disorder and raise issues such as mental disorders in the workplace, and the consequences in terms of tragedy, loss of productivity, and outright cost if the issues aren’t addressed by companies.

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