Willie Pietersen (born 1937) is an international businessman, author, and professor at Columbia University. William Gerard Pietersen was born in East London, South Africa, on Sept. 24, 1937 to Willem Gerhardus DuPlessis Pietersen and Hester Jacomina Francina (née Müller). He is six feet, four inches tall and of Dutch, German and French ancestry. Pietersen attended Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, where he earned a BA in law and economics and an LLB in law and was chairman of the Students Representative Council. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University in England where he received an MA in jurisprudence. After practicing law, he embarked on an international business career. By 1974, at age 36, Pietersen had become one of the youngest Managing Directors in the