Rick Kiessig, Co-Founder
Rick has been an entrepreneur and software architect for more than 40 years. Although his degree is in Math, he has published
research in areas as diverse as biology and satellite software, and has a background in biochemistry, organic chemistry and
complex project management. He's written software that's flown to Mars three times and on several other near and deep
space missions. He's the primary author of five patents, and has had a software-oriented book published.
He owned and operated a small business in Silicon Valley for about 20 yrs, and has worked with about a dozen
startups. Rick moved to New Zealand in 2006. His hobbies include ham radio and asteroid tracking.
Phil Oliver, Co-Founder
Phil has been a self-taught programmer and software architect/engineer for about 40 years, working on a wide variety of software projects,
including many engineering related ones. He has a lifelong interest in science and engineering and earned a degree in Biomedical
Engineering in 2012. He designed and created multiple historical research tools on American Indian history and the
American Civil War which were very widely used and facilitated historical research which resulted in new book publications
by various authors. He's seen the potential of DRACO (now VTose) for years and was
disappointed that it never received the attention that it deserved, and is happy to finally be working to
turn that potential into actual working reality.