Filipino-Japanese American Gen Mark Tanno, a former Las Piñas resident who previously worked at Meta and Microsoft, has achieved his childhood dream by joining Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company.

Tanno, 28, whose mother is Filipino and father a Japanese businessman, graduated summa cum laude from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 2020.

He completed a double major in Computer Science and Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech.

After becoming an American citizen, he worked as a software engineer at Microsoft before joining Blue Origin, the space technology company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

In a Facebook post, Tanno said he wanted his teachers in the Philippines to know that he had fulfilled his dream of working in a space company.

“But, I wanted to let my childhood teachers know that I eventually made it to a space company, which was my dream back in middle/high school!” he said.

Besides his new job at Blue Origin, Tanno said he is considering continuing work at a start-up company.

“It was not a straightforward path at all, taking a 2nd major in Computer Science, working in the Tech industry like Meta, Microsoft. Then trying startup, both building my own idea, realizing how impossible it is doing solo. Then, joining a startup (which is really nice and might continue still working with them on the side). But, eventually I guess I'm getting a chance to help build a road to space,” he said.

Blue Origin’s mission is to envision a future where millions of people live and work in space to restore and sustain Earth.

Its rockets include New Shepard and New Glenn, the latter named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth.

The company said New Glenn is “engineered with the safety and redundancy required to fly humans, and will enable our vision of building a road to space for the benefit of Earth.”

Tanno lived in Las Piñas before moving to the United States for college in 2016.

He studied elementary, high school, and International Baccalaureate at Southville International School and Colleges in the Philippines.

As a student, he represented the Philippines and won medals in various international math competitions.

In 2015, he was chosen as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Mathematicians in the National Capital Region.

While at Georgia Tech in 2019, Tanno and two teammates won Best Aerospace Engineering Project at the Capstone Design Expo.