Pierre  du Plessis Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerPierre du Plessis

Internationally renowned speaker, strategist, and author

Pierre is an internationally renowned speaker, strategist, and author who has dedicated over two decades to helping businesses and individuals navigate the intricacies of strategy, leadership, and chaos. As the founder of Be Brave, Pierre partners with leading multi-national organizations and scaleups to co-create transformative strategies that build businesses that... Read more

Biography

Pierre is an internationally renowned speaker, strategist, and author who has dedicated over two decades to helping businesses and individuals navigate the intricacies of strategy, leadership, and chaos. As the founder of Be Brave, Pierre partners with leading multi-national organizations and scaleups to co-create transformative strategies that build businesses that matter. Pierre has delivered keynotes for high-profile clients such as BMW, Yum!, FNB, Allan Gray, EO, KFC, HATCH and TENCENT all across the world His core topic, strategy, is presented through a lens that combines a blend of current trends, trusted frameworks, academic research, ancient wisdom and the odd dose of pop culture.

Pierre’s talks inspire leaders to make brave decisions, embrace uncertainty, and transform challenges into opportunities for innovation and growth. He has also shared his insights on prestigious platforms, including four TEDx stages. As an author, Pierre has written four books, including Train Naked, a guide to a meaningful life and work that matters and has received the Desmond Tutu Gerrit Brand Prize for Literature. His writings explore the interplay of strategy, leadership, and how to be a better human being, giving readers tools to create meaningful change in their lives and organisations. Pierre’s signature keynote, “In Praise of Shadows” challenges conventional approaches to chaos and equips audiences with practical insights to navigate complexity and to build products and business that move our world forward. Whether speaking to exco’s, founders, or diverse teams, Pierre’s presentations are delivered in a conversational style and are marked by thought-provoking ideas, relatable storytelling, actionable frameworks, a good shot of humour and tons of storytelling.

Holding a Master’s degree from Stellenbosch University, Cum Laude, with a focus on Loneliness and Belonging, Pierre brings a unique, human-centric perspective to his work. His academic and professional expertise enables him to blend insights into human behavior with proven strategic frameworks, helping businesses and teams harness their potential to thrive in chaotic and complex environments. Pierre’s professional journey started in fashion in the 90s and meandered through advertising, marketing, branding, product design and development and includes serving as a trend analyst at Flux Trends and helping design the behaviour change ecosystem at Coachbit Inc. which contributed to the company’s 15 x growth.

"Why would you live your life being mediocre when Pierre's wisdom can take you from a zero in chaos to a hero through embracing your weirdness!" Multi-Media
"Put everything into perspective and gave me a clear way forward simplified." Terra Nova
"Energetic, entertaining and combines left and right brain audience engagement." Investment Forum 2025
"This talk was amazing and exactly what you need in a world with VUCA. It encourages embracing the uncertainty and chaos of the world -because that's where the good things happen. I can highly recommend getting Pierre in to talk to your team. He's relatable, engaging, funny, and gets the message across using storytelling." Skynamo
"Our company is going through massive growth and our environment is quite chaotic. The link Pierre created with chaos and the beauty and growth that happens in the shadows was fantastic. The way that the talk felt like it was created for individuals is what made it special. Everyone has a takeaway that feels like "WOW! This has been created for me". The personal stories, history, and general people behaviour creates these moments of connection before Pierre drops a wisdom bomb! Loved it!." Multi-Media
"The talk was absolutely brilliant and captivating. Pierre took us on an incredible journey, weaving the narrative in a way that was both engaging and thought-provoking." South Africa Association of Actuaries
"Our strategy workshop with Pierre was groundbreaking for the company. Pierre expertly guided us through crafting a value system and medium and long term goals. Pierre's insight was incredible and the entire team thoroughly enjoyed the whole process - and left empowered and excited!" African Risk Manager
"Pierre kept everyone fully engaged with his insightful and thought-provoking talk, 'Teams to Tribes.' It really made us rethink how we approach our relationships, both at work and at home. His genuine and relatable style with the way he broke down the process, made everything click so naturally. So glad we had him speak at our end of year function!" Onomo Hotel Group
"Pierre has a depth of insight that is refreshing. He simplifies business approaches - that can so often be overly complex and detached - into clear, collective solutions that begin with individuals knowing they can make courageous decisions." Sout Arican Institute for Chartered Accountants

Popular Talks by Pierre du Plessis

  • You’re weird. I like it – A talk about creating a differentiating strategy
  • Teams to Tribes – A session about teams
  • Money is ‘just’ a Story – A talk about our subjective stories of money
  • In Praise of Shadows – A Talk about the importance of mystery and uncertainty
  • Chaos is a gift – A Talk about liminal space and the benefits of chaotic times
  • AI & I – A talk about what it, now, means to be human in the age of AI
  • You don’t need more time, you need to make a decision. – A talk about decision making