Vale Ron Cacioppe

Written By CJ Malmsten

We are deeply saddened this week on the passing of the founder of our company, and our Chairman, Ron Cacioppe.

In the words of his son Jonah: “As Bruce says, Ron was “born in the USA”, in New Jersey in 1944 to be precise. Ron was a great athlete, high-school quarterback, progressive academic, an expert on leadership, bad artist, moderate writer of haiku, failed children’s book author, philosopher, lover of Zen Buddhism & Advaita Vedanta, hardcore Bruce Springsteen fanboy, mentor, coach to both young leaders & executives, meditation & mindfulness champion (way before it was cool), seriously awful musician & keyboard player, brother (to Richard, Ray & Gail), grandfather (to Hudson, Noah and Frankie), father (to Chris, Jonah and Satya), colleague and friend to many.”

At Integral, we were constantly awed by the breadth of impact Ron had had over the years on leaders across Perth. It was completely normal to turn up to a client meeting only to meet someone in the room who said something along the lines of ‘ah, Ron Cacioppe, I went on a leadership program with him back in the 90s, it completely changed the way I lead, and me as a person’.

Ron was a great believer in potential – in the people he coached, in his colleagues and in the world. Sometimes it made him a hard taskmaster, but mostly it inspired those around him to work on themselves and the world around them to make things better. He was an innovator, developing new ways to measure improvement in leadership practices, bringing mindfulness to the people of Perth well before it was popularised, and taking the brave step to embrace digitisation at Integral, making us one of the most technologically advanced leadership development companies in Australia today.

Ron discovered that he had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (a highly aggressive bone marrow cancer) on his 80th birthday, 20 May 2024. He slipped away, after some precious time with his family and friends, on 31 May 2024.

Ron has played less of a role at Integral over the past years as leadership of the company has transitioned to his son, our CEO Jonah Cacioppe. His legacy will live on for us and for so many who had the chance to work with him over the years.

Ron followed Zen Buddhism, and there is a lovely teaching from Buddha, saying of those who lived well, as Ron did:

“On the air they rise and fly an invisible course, gathering nothing, storing nothing… Joyous and clear like the lake, still as the stone at the door, (they are) free from life and death.”

We wish this for Ron, and peace to his family during this time of reflection.

Farewell Ron, from your Integral team.

CJ Malmsten
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