Tola Marts
Tola Marts graduated in 1992 from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He spent his first decade selling and supporting engineering software, the next decade building rockets for Jeff Bezos as one of the first Blue Origin employees, and then almost a decade designing humanitarian technology for the world’s poorest people as part of Intellectual Ventures Labs, a Bill Gates-funded think tank. He recently joined Tethers Unlimited, a small aerospace R&D firm in Bothell, WA where he serves as Director of Engineering, overseeing the development of technologies for the coming off-world economy. He and his wife Tracy live in Issaquah where they raised two children, and where he has served for the past eleven years on the Issaquah City Council. His hobbies include building and flying drones, and restoring vintage motorcycles.