Mike (Misha) was born in Odessa, Ukraine, in the late-1980s. His family emigrated to the U.S. when he was two years old, seeking a better life in America that was not available to Jews in the former Soviet Union. Misha grew up in San Francisco and still lives in the Bay Area. He holds a B.Sc. in aerospace engineering from UCLA and an M.Sc. from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. He started his career at NASA working on satellite technologies, after which he became part of the founding team at Planet, a mission-driven space company that operates the world’s largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites. He is currently VP of Launch and is recognized as a young leader in the space industry. Misha has also had a lifelong engagement with his Judaism, starting with religious school at Congregation B’nai Emunah as a young child, attending Camp Arazim, a Jewish summer camp, for six years, holding leadership positions at AEPi (the Jewish fraternity) at UCLA, taking a Birthright trip to Israel in 2007, a month-long Jerusalem trip with Aish HaTorah in 2009, participating in programming through Urban Adamah and Wilderness Torah in the Bay Area, and most recently concluding a year and a half of service on the Young Adult Leadership Committee and Tzedek Council at Congregation Emanu-El.