BBRU appoint Interim President
BBRU appoint Interim President
Following the resignation of former BBRU president Gert Wessels, the BBRU today announced that Willem Strauss, Vice President for the past 4 years, has been appointed as the Interim President until November 2018.
He attended Sand du Plessis High School in Bloemfontein, and furthered his education at the University of the Free State. In 1991 at the tender age of 24 Strauss was appointed as Manager and Executive officer of the South-Eastern Transvaal Rugby Union (Mpumalanga Rugby Union). He held this position for eight years until 1999, elevating them from 22 to 5 on the South African provincial rugby rankings, creating a formidable team beating the likes of Transvaal, Northern Transvaal and Western Province in various Cup matches in the late 1990s. They also defeated Scotland and Wales in that time period. Strauss was also responsible for securing huge sponsorships from inter alia Sasol to assist in improving South-Eastern Rugby.
Between 1996 and 1999 he also filled the roll of Marketing Manager of the Northern Bulls Super12 franchise. He thereafter established his own promotion company that specializes in promoting rugby tournaments, events, incoming and outgoing tours of teams to inter alia Africa, Europe, USA, South America, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and Dubai.
He arranged a test between Samoa and the Springboks, which was the first ever by a private promoter. The @tlantic tournament which he was responsible for drew more than a 1000 school teams. He also played a leading role in establishing 7s rugby in South Africa, and in 2017 he promoted the tours of the SA Barbarians (club players) to the Czech Republic.
He is married to Elmarie Strauss and has four children, Hermias, Enan, Marlizca and Mishke, and is also the step-brother of the Springbok flyhalf, De Wet Ras.
The Blue Bulls Rugby Union and the Blue Bulls Company would like to congratulate him on being elected, and would like to wish him everything of the best in this new role.
