Anton du Plessis appointed executive director of the ISS
Dr Jakkie Cilliers, who has led the ISS for more than two decades, steps down at the end of this year as executive director.
Pretoria, South Africa – The Board of Trustees of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Anton du Plessis as ISS Executive Director from 1 January 2016.
Du Plessis has been running the ISS since 2013 when Dr Jakkie Cilliers, the outgoing executive director, took a sabbatical at the Universities of Denver and Columbia. After serving as acting executive director in 2013, du Plessis was appointed managing director in January 2014. The formalisation of his new role confirms the confidence of the trustees in his leadership of the ISS.
Du Plessis joined the ISS in 2003 and has headed the organisation’s Crime and Justice Programme as well as the Transnational Threats and International Crimes division. Between these appointments, he was a criminal justice and counter-terrorism legal expert for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna.
Du Plessis has worked as an expert advisor to various UN entities and other intergovernmental organisations, including the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate and the UN Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force. He is a World Economic Forum (WEF) Young Global Leader and served as vice-chair of the WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Terrorism. Du Plessis is currently a member of WEF’s Council on Fragility, Violence and Conflict.
Cilliers, who has led the ISS for more than two decades, will assume the role of chairman of the ISS Board of Trustees and head of the African Futures and Innovation section at the ISS, a function he has performed for the last two years. Cilliers will remain engaged with the ISS in a full-time capacity, focusing on research and the exploration of new opportunities.
ISS Board of Trustees
Amb Nicolas Bwakira
Dr Jakkie Cilliers
Saki Macozoma
Dr Wendy Ngoma
Prof Maxi Schoeman
Media inquiries:
Dr Jakkie Cilliers, ISS: +251 921 378 311, [email protected]
