Excutive team
Trusted. Professional. Expert.
We are devoted to helping people live their best lives. With a wide range of backgrounds in areas such as business, law, finance, accounting, horticulture, engineering, research, healthcare and retail, our team is well-suited to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving industry. With our blue-chip leadership and talented team members, Marister Biosciences is perfectly placed to become a thought leader and respected research partner in the cannabis industry.
Gregory Heunis
FINANCIAL DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
Greg Heunis has a B Compt (Hons) and is a Chartered Accountant (SA). Greg has 5 years’ experience as a senior manager in a Multinational Pharmaceutical company (Novartis AG) and 10 years’ experience as a financial executive in a local listed pharmaceutical company (Adcock Ingram Ltd).
Operational experience in Pharmaceutical companies ranges from having 85 direct and indirect repartees and being responsible for all financial functions. Strategic experience includes being responsible for the identification, financial modelling, board approval, due diligence, and final integration of acquired pharma companies in the African continent. Greg has held directorships in pharmaceutical companies in Sub-Saharan Africa, East and West Africa.
Currently Greg is co-owner and Managing Director of a Physical Rehabilitation Hospital in Johannesburg.
Dr. Wayne Van Niekerk
R&D DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
Wayne is world-class oncologist, one of the most respected in Private Practice in South Africa. He has super-specialised in the treatment of prostate cancer – specifically utilising
Brachytherapy and has presented lectures and talks at various international meetings.
He also has a Master’s degree in Palliative Medicine and was the Medical Director of Hospice for many years.
He has a special interest in the use of natural medicines and particularly the use of cannabis in the oncological setting.
Matthew Liechti
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
Grant Provan
LEGAL DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
Matthew is a M.Arch (prof) graduate with years of experience in environmental and medical-based architecture and planning with several successfully completed projects behind his name.
Matthew specializes in the resolution of complex systematic designs, encapsulating health care facilities, laboratories and environmental based architectural and building technology solutions.
Matthew has designed various healthcare facilities, a molecular biology laboratory, a Physical Rehabilitation Clinic and overseen the planning and creation of 2 Pharmaceutical Cannabis facilities.
Grant holds B.PROC. LLB degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand and is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa. Grant specialized in insolvency law before moving into business sphere.
He holds Directorships in numerous companies in the property, farming and engineering fields. His primary interest is mergers and acquisitions, identifying new business and growing companies to maximize their potential.
Dr. Michelle Van Niekerk
GENETIC STRAIN RESEARCH & TISSUE CULTURE LAB
Steyn Du Plessis
INVESTOR RELATIONS DIRECTOR
Michelle has a PhD in Genetics and has published research articles in the most esteemed peer review journals in the world.
She was also the head of the Tissue Culture Lab at the University of Pretoria before leaving for private practice.
Currently she runs a private Biotech consulting firm in South Africa.
Steyn is a qualified chartered accountant with a Master's degree in Computer Auditing (qualified as a chartered accountant in 1996).
He has specialized in the commercialization of new technologies through venture creation and licensing arrangements. He was the commercialization executive for the CSIR (largest R&D institution in Africa) where his responsibilities included the protection of intellectual property, the commercialization of new technologies through venture creation and or licensing.
He has held various board positions on the board of directors of start-up companies, managed several successful exits, and served as a trustee of a venture fund.
Steyn is currently also a board member of Bestmed Medical Aid Fund. Furthermore, he also has experience in corporate finance and in the turnaround of ailing businesses
The management team is complemented by other professionals with extensive experience in the field of cannabis, agriculture and business.