Company Profile

The Board

Prof Stephanie Burton
Director and Chairperson
Prof Stephanie Burton was previously the Vice-Principal responsible for research and postgraduate education at the University of Pretoria (UP). She is responsible for international agreements and innovation activities at UP and is also Director of the UP start-up INSiAVA (Pty) Ltd. She holds an MSc in Organic Chemistry and a PhD in Biochemistry from Rhodes University. As an NRF B-rated researcher, Prof Burton has published extensively and holds several patents. Prof Burton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and a member of the Council of Academy of Science of South Africa.

Prof Carolina Koornhof
Director
Prof Koornhof is a CA(SA), a British certified accountant (FCCA) and a Registered Auditor (RA). She has served on the boards and audit committees of several commercial and public organisations including the Audit Committee of the National Treasury, the Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund and the Training and Education Committee of SAICA. Prof Koornhof is a former President of the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI). She is currently Executive Director: Finance and Business Initiatives of the University of Pretoria.

Prof Sunil Maharaj
Director
Prof Sunil Maharaj is the Vice-Principal: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education of the University of Pretoria. He was previously the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology and before that the Head of Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at UP. Since 2017 he has been the Chair of the board of TuksNovation, a hi-tech business incubator and accelerator.
He has more than 33 years combined experience in industry (as a microwave and RF design engineer), academia and consulting. He holds a PhD Engineering and is a professional engineer registered with the Engineering Council of SA, a Fellow of the SA Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers and Senior Member of IEEE. Prof Maharaj is author of more than 170 conference and journal articles, 2 patents and winner of several awards.

Prof Tivani Mashamba-Thompson
Director
Prof Tivani Mashamba-Thompson is a HPCSA registered Medical Scientist (Molecular Biology) and an NRF-rated Professor of Diagnostics Research. She was appointed as Full Professor and a Deputy Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies for the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria with effect from 1 January 2021. Tivani’s research area of expertise is in the implementation of point-of-care diagnostics for under-served populations and resource-limited settings. She has co-edited and co-authored two e-books in this research area.

The Team

Mr Gerrie Mostert
(acting) Chief Executive Officer
Gerrie has experience in founding of high-tech start-up companies and specialises in the commercialisation of intellectual property. He holds a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Pretoria and a Master of Business Leadership from the University of South Africa.

Prof Veronica Ueckerman
Chief Clinical Advisor
Adjunct Professor Internal Medicine: Steve Biko Academic Hospital, University of Pretoria.

Mr Carl Baumeister
Head of Operations
Carl is co-inventor of the EIS diagnostic technique and hardware. He has more than 7 years' experience with the MARTI diagnostic and has a Masters degree in biochemistry from the University of Pretoria.

Prof Jan Verschoor
Chief Scientific Advisor to MARTI
Professor of biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria. He is co-inventor of 9 patents pertaining to TB diagnostics and co-author of more than 60 scholarly publications, many of them in peer-reviewed journals.

Ms Mosa Molatseli
Research Scientist
Mosa has a Masters degree in Biochemistry. She works on the EIS analytical method and has experience creating monoclonal antibody development.

Mr Thoriso Sesing
Biochemist

Ms Nomthandazo Khuboni
Intern