Careers

Raymond Hartley is the Managing Director and Founding member of Microchem Lab Services. Microchem was established in 2007 when he bought the Woolworths in-house laboratory together with his business partner Dominic Sides. In 2009 Microchem bought Consulting Microbiological Laboratory (CML) situated in Benoni. Further depos were established in the Kariega and Tzaneen, to service clients in the fruit producing industry in these areas. Initially Microchem focused on routine microbiological and chemical analyses. With time, Microchem expanded its scope of testing as clients required more sophisticated and lower levels of detections and range of analyses.

Charl Bekker is the Financial Manager for the Microchem Group and is based at our head office in Cape Town, supporting the day-to-day finance, Human Resources, Sales, and business management of our two laboratory facilities situated in Cape Town and Benoni.
Charl is responsible for data analytics, financial reporting and is proficient in product costing as well as new systems rollout with a focus on atomisation.

Hannes Esterhuizen is the Operations Manager and is based at our head office in Cape Town. He specialises in nutritional analysis of food products, data analytics, and reporting, and has experience in database management and systems integration. After starting his career in 2009 as a chemistry analyst, Hannes progressed to head up the chemistry laboratory and served as quality manager of the business.

Ilse Liedemann is our Head of Microbiology Services she specialises in molecular detection of pathogens. She heads up the Microbiology Research and Development to investigate relevant initiatives to support client requirements and market demands. The Microbiology laboratories support the food industry to verify food and food processing quality criteria and ensure consumer safety with pathogen testing.

Luaan Louw is the Quality Assurance Manager responsible for operations, quality control, compliance, risk management for Microchem and is based at the Cape Town head office. Luaan completed an internship at ARC Nietvoorbij, Stellenbosch and then joined Microchem as the Microbiology R&D analyst.

Anastasia Stemmers is our Microbiology Lab Manager for our Cape Town branch. Anastasia specialising in the molecular detection of extremophiles. Her expertise lies in quality assurance and microbiology. The Microbiology laboratories support the food industry to verify food and food processing quality criteria and ensure consumer safety with pathogen testing.

Derissa Nair is our Microbiology Lab Manager for our Johannesburg branch. She specialises in the detection of foodborne pathogens during food processing. She manages the SANAS accreditation and the daily operation of the Microbiology laboratory. The Microbiology laboratories support the food industry to verify food and food processing quality criteria and ensure consumer safety with pathogen testing.

Rogan Van Kerpel is the Pesticides Laboratory Manager responsible for leading a team of trained highly skilled analysts, within the Cape Town Head Office as well as two sample depots based in Tzaneen and Kariega, which make use of the latest technology and instrumentation available to ensure accurate and precise results are released to the pesticides market. Rogan strives, along with his team, to deliver an efficient, timely, and customer-centric service to our client base and he also has a dedicated interest in the Research and Development of various new and optimized methodologies and extension of scope within Microchem.

Anna Tshwene recently re-joined Microchem Lab Services as a Business Analyst. She brings along with her over a decade of experience in Food Safety and Sales in both private and corporate companies, specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her professional interest focuses on Microbiology, Food Safety Compliances, and Client Relationship in the Food/ Pharma/Chem industry.

Ryno van Eck is the Assistant Financial Manager at Microchem and assists the Financial Manager in his daily duties. Ryno has extensive auditing experience gained while previously working at a auditing company.

Stefan Priem is Head of Pharmaceutical Services at Microchem situated at our Gauteng laboratory. Stefan has extensive experience in pharmaceutical microbiological testing. During his career there, he was exposed to a variety of aspects in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry including manufacturing, packaging, quality assurance, and good manufacturing practices (GMP). Stefan gained a good understanding of water systems, environmental monitoring, and how contaminants arise in manufacturing areas. He always strives for a customer-centric approach and, with the help of his team, delivers reliable results.

Whade May is currently employed as the Assistant Manager of the Chemistry Laboratory. Whade has extensive laboratory and R&D experience in the wine industry.