MEET THE TEAM

Our Iraka Biotech team consists of founding members, advisors, and service providers. Every advisor and service provider is carefully chosen based on their professional experience and comprehensive knowledge to ensure that our company successfully creates and innovates our approach to veterinary vaccines.

BLANCHE LEE SHONG

CEO

Blanche holds a BCom (Economics & Business management) and a PGDC. She is a professional life coach with over 20 years of experience in corporate governance and inspirational leadership in the financial sector. At Iraka Biotech (Pty) LTD, she is responsible for the corporate decision-making, governance, and managing of our overall operations and resources. Blanche strives to always lead us into the future and maximize the potential of our entire team.

DR. CORNELIUS SSEMAKALU

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Cornelius Ssemakalu, the Chief Scientific Officer, holds a DTech (Chemistry), MSc (Life Sciences), BTech, and National Diploma (Biotechnology). He has completed advanced courses on Clinical Vaccine Development and Biomanufacturing, Human and Veterinary Vaccinology, and Science of Quality Improvement at Oxford University. Dr. Ssemakalu takes a unique approach to leading his research group and has published over 20 peer-reviewed research articles and presented papers at various conferences on cell biology and immunology. Dr. Ssemakalu invented the revolutionary technology platform that powers Iraka Biotech. He is also the driving force of our technology development and validation phase.

MARK JOHNSON

COO

Mark holds an MSc in Polymer Science and an LLB. He has completed various patent board exams and is currently completing his MBA. With over eight years of experience in the academic research and technology environment and another 12 in technology management, transfer, and commercialization in the manufacturing, chemistry, and biotechnology sector. Mark works tirelessly at Iraka Biotech to continually grow and expand our business development strategy while implementing it in collaboration with the other founding members.