Sarel du Plessis

At Present and looking towards the future

Sarel du Plessis, is the newly appointed CEO of the Marketing Association of South Africa MA(SA), the representative voice for organisations and individuals within the South African marketing industry. MA(SA) seeks to encourage professional and ethical marketing practices within the industry.

Career Path

Sarel first delved into the media industry when he started his first publication while still at the Rand Afrikaans University (UJ).

Sarel has also held a number of positions at Times Media Limited (TML - today Avusa), those of regional manager for Kwazulu Natal, business manager of the Business Day and sales and marketing director for Times Newspapers, publisher of Sunday Times, Business Day and others.

At the Media24 stable Sarel was the senior general manager and founder of Ads24, publisher of Media24's Sunday newspaper division RCP Media, chairman of Mooivaal Media and also represented Media24 on a number of industry boards such as SAARF, ASA, etc. His last stint at Media24 was that of CEO of News Media North, a division of Media24, where he was the publisher of Rapport, Beeld, Volksblad, Sondag and Mooivaal media.

Professional Memberships

Sarel has held the position of chairman of the South African Audience Research Foundation (SAARF) for the past four years as well as being the chairman for the South African Press Association (SAPA) for the past three years. He currently also sits on the board of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).