The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has announced that John Endres will take over as the new CEO of the Institute in January next year. He replaces Frans Cronje who steps down at the end of this year.
In a statement released by the IRR it said that Endres would be the seventh IRR CEO since its founding in 1929.
Endres has been involved with the IRR in various capacities for a decade, most recently as its Chief of Staff, a position he was appointed to in 2020.
Endres holds a doctorate in commerce and economics from the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management as well as Master’s degree in Translation Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand.
He brings a wealth of management experience to the IRR, having worked in the retail and services industry. He also has previous experience in the non-profit field, having worked with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. He was also the founding director of Good Governance Africa, an advocacy group.
Said Endres: ‘The IRR has been enormously influential in South Africa’s history, first as a principled opponent of apartheid and after 1994 as an unwavering promoter of non-racialism, free markets, individual liberty and the rule of law. I am deeply honoured to be entrusted with carrying the Institute’s liberal legacy into the future as it approaches the centenary of its founding.’
Added Frans Cronje: ‘I think that John is a very high calibre choice and that South Africa’s liberal tradition is in the most capable hands. South Africa and the free world more broadly is at a perilous junction as the liberal institutions of freedom of speech, markets, individualism, and the rule of law come under ever more withering attack. For almost 100 years the fighting spirit of the IRR has stood up to such attacks with great effect and I have little doubt that John will continue that tradition.’