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Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Canonical, the company behind the Linux operating system variant Ubuntu. In 2002, Shuttleworth became the first African to travel to space, doing so as a space tourist. He holds dual citizenship from South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2020, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated Shuttleworth's net worth to be £500 million.
Shuttleworth was born in Welkom, Free State, South Africa, to a surgeon and a nursery-school teacher. He attended Western Province Preparatory School (where he became Head Boy in 1986), followed by one term at Rondebosch Boys' High School, and then Bishops/Diocesan College where he was Head Boy in 1991. Shuttleworth obtained a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Cape Town. As a student, he was involved in the installation of the university's first residential Internet connections. Since childhood, Mark Shuttleworth had a dream of becoming a cosmonaut and flying into space.
In 1995, Shuttleworth founded Thawte Consulting, a company specializing in digital certificates and Internet security. According to The Official Ubuntu Book, Thawte became the second-largest certificate authority after VeriSign. Shuttleworth sold Thawte to VeriSign in December 1999, earning him R3.5 billion (US$575 million, equivalent to $1015 million in 2024).
In September 2000, Shuttleworth formed HBD Venture Capital (Here be Dragons), a business incubator and venture capital provider, now managed by Knife Capital. In March 2004 he formed Canonical Ltd., to promote and commercially support free software projects, especially the Ubuntu operating system. In December 2009, Shuttleworth stepped down as CEO of Canonical Ltd. to focus on "product design, partnerships, and customers", with COO Jane Silber succeeding him. Shuttleworth returned to the position of CEO of Canonical in July 2017, with Silber moving to Canonical's board of directors.
In the 1990s, Shuttleworth participated as a developer of the Debian operating system. According to the Official Ubuntu Book, he was the first to upload the Apache HTTP Server "into the Debian project's archives".
In 2001, he formed the Shuttleworth Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to social innovation and funding educational, free, and open source software projects in South Africa, such as the Freedom Toaster.
In 2004, he returned to the free-software world by funding the development of Ubuntu, a Linux distribution based on Debian, through his company, Canonical Ltd.
In 2005, he founded the Ubuntu Foundation and made an initial investment of US$10 million. In the Ubuntu project, Shuttleworth is often referred to with the tongue-in-cheek title "Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life" (SABDFL). While travelling to Antarctica aboard the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in early 2004, Shuttleworth took six months of Debian mailing list archives with him to compile a list of potential hires for the project. In September 2005, he purchased a 65% stake of Impi Linux.
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Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Canonical, the company behind the Linux operating system variant Ubuntu. In 2002, Shuttleworth became the first African to travel to space, doing so as a space tourist. He holds dual citizenship from South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2020, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated Shuttleworth's net worth to be £500 million.
Shuttleworth was born in Welkom, Free State, South Africa, to a surgeon and a nursery-school teacher. He attended Western Province Preparatory School (where he became Head Boy in 1986), followed by one term at Rondebosch Boys' High School, and then Bishops/Diocesan College where he was Head Boy in 1991. Shuttleworth obtained a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Cape Town. As a student, he was involved in the installation of the university's first residential Internet connections. Since childhood, Mark Shuttleworth had a dream of becoming a cosmonaut and flying into space.
In 1995, Shuttleworth founded Thawte Consulting, a company specializing in digital certificates and Internet security. According to The Official Ubuntu Book, Thawte became the second-largest certificate authority after VeriSign. Shuttleworth sold Thawte to VeriSign in December 1999, earning him R3.5 billion (US$575 million, equivalent to $1015 million in 2024).
In September 2000, Shuttleworth formed HBD Venture Capital (Here be Dragons), a business incubator and venture capital provider, now managed by Knife Capital. In March 2004 he formed Canonical Ltd., to promote and commercially support free software projects, especially the Ubuntu operating system. In December 2009, Shuttleworth stepped down as CEO of Canonical Ltd. to focus on "product design, partnerships, and customers", with COO Jane Silber succeeding him. Shuttleworth returned to the position of CEO of Canonical in July 2017, with Silber moving to Canonical's board of directors.
In the 1990s, Shuttleworth participated as a developer of the Debian operating system. According to the Official Ubuntu Book, he was the first to upload the Apache HTTP Server "into the Debian project's archives".
In 2001, he formed the Shuttleworth Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to social innovation and funding educational, free, and open source software projects in South Africa, such as the Freedom Toaster.
In 2004, he returned to the free-software world by funding the development of Ubuntu, a Linux distribution based on Debian, through his company, Canonical Ltd.
In 2005, he founded the Ubuntu Foundation and made an initial investment of US$10 million. In the Ubuntu project, Shuttleworth is often referred to with the tongue-in-cheek title "Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life" (SABDFL). While travelling to Antarctica aboard the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in early 2004, Shuttleworth took six months of Debian mailing list archives with him to compile a list of potential hires for the project. In September 2005, he purchased a 65% stake of Impi Linux.
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