Mark Richard Shuttleworth (b. 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur best known for founding the internet security company Thawte and for creating Ubuntu, one of the world's most widely used Linux distributions. [1] In 2002 he also became the first South African in space and the second self-funded traveller to visit the International Space Station. [2]
Early life and education
Mark Shuttleworth was born on 18 September 1973 in Welkom, in South Africa's Free State province. [1] He attended Western Province Preparatory School, Rondebosch Boys' High School and the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Cape Town, before studying finance and information systems at the University of Cape Town.
Thawte and early business
While still a student, Shuttleworth founded Thawte in 1995, a company specialising in digital certificates and internet security. Thawte became one of the leading certificate authorities of the late 1990s, and in 1999 he sold it to the American security firm VeriSign for a large sum. [1] The sale made him one of South Africa's wealthiest young technology entrepreneurs and funded his later ventures.
Flight to the International Space Station
In April 2002 Shuttleworth travelled to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, spending roughly eight days in orbit. [2] The privately financed mission made him the first South African and only the second self-funded visitor to the station, earning him the nickname "Afronaut". During the flight he participated in scientific experiments, and afterwards he promoted science and technology education across Africa.
Ubuntu and Canonical
In 2004 Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd to develop and commercially support Ubuntu, a free and open-source operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution. [3] First released in October 2004, Ubuntu emphasised ease of use and a predictable release schedule, and it grew into one of the most popular Linux distributions for desktops, servers and cloud computing. Shuttleworth financed much of the project personally and has remained a central figure in its direction.
Philanthropy and later work
Shuttleworth established the Shuttleworth Foundation, which supports innovators in open education, open technology and social change through a fellowship programme. [4] Holding dual South African and British citizenship, he has continued to lead Canonical's work in open-source software and cloud infrastructure, making him one of the most prominent figures associated with the wider Linux and free-software movement.
