Eric Anderson

Eric Anderson is currently one of the owners and serves as Vice President of SEAKR Engineering, Inc. He also leads SEAKR’s efforts in spacecraft high-performance processing and NASA programs. Eric started his career with the Intel Corporation as a Product Engineer for the Special Components Division. He joined his father, Ray, and brother, Scott, at SEAKR in 1985. He has developed much of the software/firmware for the microprocessor-controller used in our Solid-State Recorders. Eric earned his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Northern Arizona University and his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Long Beach.

Frank Backes

As CEO, Frank has been instrumental in delivering more than 100 percent revenue growth in two years while maintaining profitability percentages. During this time of extreme growth, Braxton has expanded its workforce by 400 percent. In addition to general CEO duties, Frank is responsible for sales, marketing, and business infrastructure. Prior to joining Braxton Technologies, Frank was the President and CTO of a software development and products company specializing in knowledge management and collaborative business products. Frank has over 24 years of project management, operations management, systems development, and deployment experience. As the CFO for a publically traded company, Frank has had extensive experience with mergers, acquisitions, and SEC compliance. Frank holds a Bachelors degree in Semiconductor Physics with minors in Computer Hardware Engineering, and Communications/Marketing from the University of California at San Diego.

Mark M. Gittleman

Mr. Gittleman began his career in the offshore oil and gas production industry, where he was a commercial diver and diving supervisor involved in all aspects of underwater construction, inspection, and repair projects. As one of the founders of Oceaneering International, Inc.’s Oceaneering Space Systems division in 1988, he was responsible for conveying and applying the technical and management lessons learned from oilfield construction projects to the space station, focusing on the operational integration of human and robots and designing equipment intrinsically compatible with both.

He has been the Vice President & General Manager of Oceaneering Space Systems (OSS) since 1997, after having served as an engineer, project manager, and Robotics Program Manager. Under his leadership, OSS has more than tripled in size and profitability, building its business by focusing on accountability, execution, and Customer care.

Mr. Gittleman has degrees in Political Science and Ocean Engineering from the University of California, San Diego and California State University, Long Beach, respectively, and is a registered professional engineer in Texas. He serves on numerous advisory boards, and was awarded NASA’s Public Service Medal in 2005 for service in support of JSC’s mission.

Henrik Hofvander

Henrik Hofvander is the President and CEO of Zolo Technologies and has more than 20 years of senior management experience in the laser, optics, and electro-optics field. At the Melles Griot Electro-Optics division, where he served as Engineering Manager, Director of Operations, and General Manager, Henrik led the development of numerous solid-state laser systems, as well as laser-based instrumentation, incorporating optics, fiber optics, electronics, lasers, mechanics, and thermal management. Henrik then consulted for aero-space and telecom companies in the areas of systems engineering and strategy, prior to joining Zolo Technologies. Since joining Zolo, Henrik has focused on leading the development of Zolo's unique laser-based combustion sensors; sensors that measure where nothing else can, e.g. in the combustion zone of coal-fired power plants, or jet engines. As the CEO of Zolo Technologies, Henrik has been a key part of winning numerous government contracts, and raised several rounds of venture capital funding.

Henrik received his BSEE and MSEE from the Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden. As a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University, Henrik developed novel image processing algorithms.

Conor D. Johnson

Dr. Conor Johnson is President and a founder of CSA Engineering, Inc., a Mountain View, CA company providing products in vibration suppression and precision motion control. CSA is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Moog, having been acquired in 2008. Dr. Johnson is an internationally-recognized leader in the development and application of passive vibration suppression, especially for aerospace system applications. He is responsible for directing research, development, and applications in the field of vibration suppression and has designed damping and isolation treatments for a large number of structures in the defense, aircraft, aerospace, marine, automobile, electronics, and commercial industries. Dr. Johnson is an author of over fifty technical papers and numerous technical reports and is co-inventor on seven issued patents and one pending patent.

Conor earned his B.S. in engineering mechanics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and his M.S. and Ph.D. iin engineering mechanics from Clemson University.

Harold Reitsema

Dr. Harold J. Reitsema is a consultant to NASA, science institutions and the aerospace industry in the field of aerospace mission planning and development. He serves on review boards and science investigation teams for NASA space science missions, including Kepler, Spitzer, and the New Horizons mission to Pluto. He has extensive experience in management of technology initiatives and product development. In his previous position as Director for Science Mission Development at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp, he led business development efforts that produced numerous NASA contracts and successful space missions. Dr. Reitsema holds a U.S. patent for the Optically Coupled Shaft Encoder. He holds memberships in the American Astronomical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and the International Astronomical Union; and is listed in Who’s Who in America. Asteroid 13327 Reitsema is named in recognition of his contributions to Planetary Science.

Scott Tibbitts

Mr. Tibbitts is the Founder and Executive Director of eSpace. In 1987, Mr. Tibbitts founded Starsys Research Corporation to bring a promising thermal actuator technology to the spacecraft industry. With Tibbitts as CEO, Starsys developed as a world-class supplier of mechanical systems and actuators for spacecraft, with 150 employees and $18M in revenues. In 2006, Starsys Research was acquired by SpaceDev Inc, with Mr. Tibbitts assuming the role of Managing Director from the time of the merger until January, 2009. SpaceDev was acquired by Sierra Nevada Corporation in December of 2008. Tibbitts received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1980. Mr. Tibbitts worked with Rockwell International at the Rocky Flats Plant, Golden, Colorado from 1981 until 1986 as a Research Engineer developing pyrochemical processes for the purification of plutonium. Mr. Tibbitts was the recipient of the “Esprit Entrepreneur of Distinction” award in 1998, and is the holder of three patents for spacecraft products.

Ed Vandenoord

Mr. Vandenoord joined Ball Aerospace Technology Corporation in 1970 as a staff scientist. After ten years of working on flight projects involving space and earth science instruments, advanced programs, and business development, Ed became Vice President of Ball’s Space Systems Division and served in this capacity for ten years. This division built a variety of sensors and satellites for NASA, DOD and other government agencies. Included was the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope mirror system and the design and development of many of its scientific instruments. Ed retired from Ball Aerospace in 2000 as Senior Vice President.

Mr. Vandenoord served on the Board of Directors of several organizations including the Colorado Advanced Photonics Technology Center and Earthwatch (now Digitalglobe). Mr. Vandenoord is a graduate of Grinnell College with a B.A. in Physics and the University of New Mexico with a Ph.D. in Physics.