Stef du Plessis

Stef du Plessis helps organisations to create winning workplace cultures. Giving businesses the tools to do things differently, he speaks about how to make change permanent, drive performance and boost both employee engagement and results. A firm favourite with event planners and CEOs alike, he is the perfect keynote to enable companies to be the best version of themselves.

Over the past 25 years Stef has successfully delivered 3,500+ assignments on 5 continents - from keynotes through to enterprise wide culture-by-design interventions, powered by the one-of-a-kind UGRs concept. Now in use by organisations in more than 50 countries, UGRs enables organisations to build and maintain the type of culture that will ensure sustainable success, whilst also making it a great place to work.

Stef continues to lead UGRs interventions while also writing and speaking on the topics that drive change, improve performance and boost results, like: employee engagement through self-mastery and motivation; authentic leadership; trust-based teamwork; and the “nuts ‘n bolts” of how to improve workplace culture.

Having earned every award and accreditation in professional speaking, there can no doubt about Stef’s ability to influence people to do more, be more and have more – at home, work and play. From a troubled childhood spanning 8 schools, Stef was drafted for military service mid-way through South Africa’s 23-year Bush War. With nowhere else to go by the time his conscription ended, he joined the regular Army. Soon, he earned the rare distinction of being commissioned from the rank of sergeant to full lieutenant - remarkably, with exemption of the otherwise compulsory year-long internship at the Army Officers College - later becoming one of the youngest lieutenant colonels in the SADF.

On entering the civilian sector, he continued to serve as an active reserve volunteer for another decade - through South Africa’s transition into democracy - to ultimately become the decorated commander of an elite Parachute Battalion. As a civilian, he soon established himself amongst the top 5% of salespeople in the financial services industry, worldwide, before moving on to become an award winning agency sales manager in record time, and finally on to building his own independent brokerage.

This led to an invitation for him to speak at a premier sales conference, which unexpectedly led to his third and final career: first as a motivational and business speaker, soon evolving into an organisational effectiveness intervention leader through his partnership with Steve Simpson, creator of the UGRs concept. Another rare milestone is the fact that even in the absence of an undergraduate degree, the University of Johannesburg enrolled him to complete his master’s degree in leadership (which he earned cum laude), based entirely on his self-taught knowledge. Next thing, Stef’s former professor quit academia and joined his team.

It is this unique blend of personal experience, grounded on a solid academic foundation together with his exposure to what really happens on the workshop floors and in the boardrooms of corporations around the globe that distinguishes Stef as a catalyst capable of facilitating personal transformation and organisational change.

Clients everywhere agree: working with Stef gives them a competitive advantage through the mobilisation of a positively engaged workforce of empowered people, in turn creating an environment where everyone’s contribution counts and is considered to be worthwhile. The compound effect of this is perhaps best described by former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, who said that “Stef’s work has nation-building potential”.