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Erik Franks has a long and varied work experience. Erik began their career in 2002 as the Founder and CEO of Frugal Media Inc., where they managed HR and Operations for 50 employees and opened a profitable retail store. In 2004, they took a role as a Product Management Analyst at OutlookSoft. From 2009 to 2013, they worked at Velocity Airplane as an Airplane Builder and Test Pilot. From 2013 to 2017, they worked at Masten Space Systems, where they held the roles of Operations Manager and Rocket Systems Engineer. In 2017, they became the CEO of Tesseract. In 2020, they held three roles: Director of Sales at Benchmark Space Systems, Financial Consultant at Space for Humanity, and CEO at Cislune. Erik has also been the Director of Information Technologies and Communications at the International Space University USA Alumni Association since 2014.

Erik Franks completed a Bachelor of Arts in Economics at The University of Texas at Austin from 1998 to 2003. In 2012 and 2013, they obtained a Master of Science in Space Studies from the International Space University. In 2017 and 2019, they participated in the Summer 2017 Batch at Y Combinator, focusing on Startup Entrepreneurship. In 2021, they completed the Space Resources Professional Course at the International Space University. In addition, they obtained a CPR/First Aid certification from Antelope Valley College in July 2014.