Morné du Plessis
CEO, WWF-SA
Morné du Plessis is the Chief Executive of WWF South Africa since September 2007. Along with his memberships on several trusts and advisory boards, he is also the Chair of the Academic Advisory Board of the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies.
Before joining WWF South Africa, Morné was the director of one of only six national centres of excellence in South Africa; the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of UCT. Before that he held research and management positions at the former Natal Parks Board and the University of California at Berkeley respectively.
Morné has presented keynote lectures and scientific presentations at a wide range of local and international conferences, and authored or coauthored over 50 scientific publications in the fields of conservation biology and environmental science. He was awarded the South African National Research Foundation’s President’s award in 1996. In 2000 he was listed among the Mail & Guardian’s ‘Most Promising 100 Young South Africans in the New Millennium’.
Morné has degrees in Agriculture and Zoology from the universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria, an Executive MBA from the Graduate School of Business (Cape Town), and a PhD in Zoology from UCT.