Sir Jan Petrus du Plessis (born 22 January 1954[1]) is a British-South African businessman. He was the non-executive chairman of BT Group,[2] and the former non-executive chairman of Rio Tinto Group plc,[3] and a former non-executive director of the Lloyds TSB Group.[4] Du Plessis was placed tenth in The Times 2006 Power 100,[5] a list which rates the most powerful people in British business.
Du Plessis worked in various management positions in the South African Rembrandt Group from 1981, and in 1988 he became Group Finance Director of Compagnie Financière Richemont.[3] He also held the same position at tobacco manufacturer Rothmans International between 1990 and 1995.[4] When Rothmans International was merged with British American Tobacco in 1999, du Plessis became a non-executive director on that board.[5]
In April 2004, du Plessis left his position at Richemont to take on the role of non-executive chairman at British American Tobacco.[7] In June 2005, he was appointed non-executive chairman of the UK food business RHM.[3] In October of the same year, du Plessis joined the board of directors at the Lloyds TSB Group as a non-executive director.[8]
In March 2009, it was announced that he would be the new chairman of mining group Rio Tinto.[10] In 2014 he was appointed to the board of SAB Miller and July 2015 took over as the chairman.[11]
On 9 March 2017, BT announced that du Plessis would be taking over as chairman from November 2017. On 1 March 2021, du Plessis announced he was retiring.[12] He was succeeded by Adam Crozier.