Mark Shuttleworth was born in 1973 in Welkom, South Africa. He was born into the home of a surgeon and a nursery school teacher. She attended school at Western province preparatory School in 1986. And later went to Diocesan College. He obtained a bachelor of science degree in information systems at the University of Cape Town. His first involvement in internet connection installation was at his university.
Career
In 1995, Mark founded Thawte. The company focused on digital certificates and internet security. He sold Thawte to VeriSign in 1999 at about $575 million. In 2000, Mark founded another company called HBD venture. This venture was a business incubator and venture capital provider. In 2004, Mark founded Canonical Ltd. This outfit was focused on the promotion and support of free software development projects, particularly Ubuntu.
Canonical Limited
In 2004, Mark founded Canonical Limited. He was the CEO until he handed over to Jane Silber in 2009. After he stepped down as CEO of Canonical and moved into a background role in order to focus on other projects. In 2017, he took over from Silber again and has maintained the position. Canonical is a software company involved in projects related to open-source operating systems. It enjoys patronage from big players that include Netflix, Tesla, and Deutsche Telekom.
Linux and FOSS
In the late 1990s, Mark was actively involved in the development of the Debian operating system. In 2001, he founded the Shuttleworth Foundation. The foundation functions as a non-profit dedicated to social innovation and open-Source software projects in South Africa.
2006, Mark Shuttleworth became the first patron of KDE. This led to the release of Kubuntu, an Ubuntu variant with KDE as the main desktop. In 2013, he won the Austrian anti-privacy Big Brother Award. This was in recognition of his contribution in sending local Ubuntu searches to the canonical servers by default.
Space Travel
In 2002, mark paid for his own spaceflight. He booked a seat in the Soyuz spacecraft. He was the second self-funded space tourist. The first in Africa. He launched aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission as a participant. Mark had to undergo one year of preparation so that he could participate in this flight. He spent seven months of training in Russia. While in space, Mark had the opportunity of a radio conversation with Nelson Mandela. On his return, he traveled widely and spoke to schoolchildren about space travel. He returned to his passion for tech and founded Ubuntu in 2004. The project was aimed at creating operating system software for free distribution to users in developing countries.
Legal Battle with South African Reserve Bank
Mark got involved in a legal battle with the South African Reserve Bank after moving R2.5 billion in capital to the Isle of Man. The bank imposed a fine before they could release his assets. After a lengthy legal battle, the court ordered the bank to repay Mark the R250 million they took from him. In addition, the bank was made to pay for damages. The court stated that the main purpose of the exit charge was to discourage capital export and protect the domestic economy.
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