​​Dr Phillip Louw has been appointed with effect from 1 January 2023 as the new editor-in-chief and executive director of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaans Taal (WAT).

WAT (Dictionary of the Afrikaans Language) is the largest descriptive Afrikaans dictionary. As a comprehensive descriptive dictionary, it strives to reflect the Afrikaans language in its entirety.

Prof Hester Klopper, Chair of the WAT board and Vice-Rector: Strategy, Global and Corporate Affairs at Stellenbosch University (SU) said: “The board of WAT is confident that the appointment of Louw is of great benefit to the Bureau of WAT. He is an expert with extensive experience. We believe that Louw will thrive at WAT and lead the Bureau as a future-focused organisation in a strategic and innovative manner."

“For a multilingual university such as Stellenbosch University, WAT is indeed a great asset. I look forward to welcoming Louw to Stellenbosch," she said.

Louw is a Stellenbosch University alumnus, having obtained a DLitt in Lexicography (with a focus on school dictionaries) at the University. He started his career as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at SU, after which he moved to the Bureau of the Dictionary of the Afrikaans Language. After seven years as associate editor at WAT, he joined Oxford University Press Southern Africa (OUPSA) as senior editor in 2005. His first project as an editor for OUP, the Oxford Afrikaans-Engels English-Afrikaans Skoolwoordeboek School Dictionary, received the ATKV Vocabulary Award in 2008. He was also the editor-in-chief of the monolingual Oxford Afrikaanse Skoolwoordeboek published in 2012. Until December 2022, he serves as publishing manager: dictionaries and literature at OUPSA, with an additional support role for the rest of Africa and Australia.

From 2013 to 2019 he was a member of the Afrikaans Language Commission of the South African Academy for Science and Arts and he collaborated on the 11th edition of the Afrikaans Woordelys en Spelreëls. Since 2019, he has served as a board member of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX) and also on the scientific committee of the European Association for Lexicography (EURALEX) for 2020–21. In 2022, he co-chaired the Oxford English Dictionary's Oxford World English Symposium.