Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2009, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system. He currently lives in London and holds dual citizenship of South Africa and the United Kingdom. Shuttleworth was born in Welkom, Orange Free State, South Africa as a son of a surgeon and a nursery teacher. After atte... more

Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2009, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system. He currently lives in London and holds dual citizenship of South Africa and the United Kingdom. Shuttleworth was born in Welkom, Orange Free State, South Africa as a son of a surgeon and a nursery teacher. After attending school at Rondebosch Boys' High School and Diocesan College, Shuttleworth obtained a Business Science degree in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Cape Town. He lived in Smuts Hall, where he was involved in the installation of the first residential Internet connections at the university. Shuttleworth founded Thawte in 1995, which specialised in digital certificates and Internet security and then sold it to VeriSign in December 1999, earning R 3.5 billion (about US$ 575 million at the time). In September 2000,... less