Steve Killelea

As a global philanthropist, Steve Killelea has laid the foundations to develop an entirely new understanding of peace. As a thought leader, he has reshaped the entire concept to recognise its integrity to the revival of our economic and political systems. Few have provoked global thought amongst both policymakers and members of the public quite to the extent of Steve. An international entrepreneur behind the global think tank, the Institute for Economics and Peace, he combines a highly successful career in technology with a philanthropic focus on peace and sustainable development to shed new light on issues, from terrorism and conflict to economics and prosperity.

Steve harbours over a decade’s worth of award-winning experience, delving into the crucial yet misunderstood concept of global peace. He founded the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) in 2007, as an independent not for profit global research institute analysing the intertwined relationships between business, peace, and economic development. Steve’s funding and thought leadership behind the Institute would see him recognised as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People on reducing the onset of armed violence. IEP global leadership extends to calculating the economic cost of violence, measuring peace, risk analysis of a nation’s threat levels, and a new understanding of “Positive Peace” – an eight- pillar model embracing the attitudes, institutions, and structures required to create and sustain peaceful societies. As one of the world’s most impactful think tanks, its research is extensively used by multi-laterals, including the United Nations, World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as thousands of university courses around the world. He is also the founder of the Global Peace Index, the world’s leading quantitative measurement of global peacefulness, ranking 163 countries, and independent territories.

Steve currently serves on the President’s Circle for Club de Madrid, the largest forum of democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers working to strengthen democracy. He is an honorary president for Religion for Peace, the largest organisation in the world working on inter-religious challenges. Steve also sits on several other influential not-for-profit boards and is a regular speaker at international forums on conflict, peace, governance, and development.

Steve has always had a strong passion for sustainable development, starting his first project in 1992, which led to the establishment of The Charitable Foundation (TCF), working with the most  impoverished communities of the world. TCF is one of the larger private overseas aid organisations based in Australia and is mainly active in Asia and Africa, completing nearly two hundred projects in its history. It provides life-changing interventions and aims to reach as many people as possible by supporting a variety of projects, including emergency and famine relief, environment rehabilitation, housing, and the rehabilitation of child soldiers. Steve is actively involved in the projects he funds. His funding of the IEP was recognised as one of the 50 most impactful philanthropic gifts in Australia’s history by a coalition of Australian Foundations in 2013.

Steve is the founder of Integrated Research Ltd (IR), an Australian publicly-listed company with a 30-year heritage providing its PROGNOSIS performance monitoring software for business- critical computing and IP telephony environments. Through Steve’s direction as CEO and then Chairman, IR is now one of Australia’s leading IT companies with an impressive world-class customer base. The company’s software is used by many of the world’s top organisations in more than 50 countries, including many of the Global 1000 companies. Steve was a board member of the Australian Information Industry Association for eight years. He also sat on several private company and government boards, including the Australian Chapter of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBAB), the National Information and Communications Technology Australia (NICTA), and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Alongside his other business activities, in 2001, Steve founded Smarter Capital, a venture capital company that specialises in investing in unique technologies with global applicability.