Mark Shuttleworth
Webit Speaker, Founder of Ubuntu and Canonical
Mark is founder of Ubuntu, a popular free operating system for desktops and servers, and leads product design at Canonical. Mark champions design-driven development and has a focus on quality and cadence in the engineering work done at Canonical.
While studying finance and IT at the University of Cape Town, Mark founded Thawte, a company specialising in digital certificates and cryptography that was acquired in 1999 by VeriSign. In 2000 he founded HBD, an investment company, and setup the Shuttleworth Foundation, which funds innovative change in society by supporting Fellows and investing in their projects. In 2002 he flew as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34 to the International Space Station, after a year of training in Star City, Russia, Houston, and Kazakhstan. After a tour of schools in South Africa promoting science and mathematics for aspiring astronauts he started work on Ubuntu. Today he lives on the lovely Isle of Man along with 12 ducks, the equally lovely Claire, two black bitches and the occasional itinerant sheep.