Biography
I’m founder of the Ubuntu Project, a popular Linux-based operating system that is freely available worldwide for desktops and servers. Ubuntu aims to be beautiful, easy to use and precision engineered for consumers and large-scale enterprise deployments alike. It’s used by an amazing number of people, from folks who just want a PC that works for the web, to heavy industry, massive cloud computing environments, national police forces, banks and schools in the Amazon.
I lead design and product strategy at Canonical Ltd, the company behind Ubuntu. Canonical provides support on a commercial basis for the free Ubuntu operating system. It also builds many of the unique elements of Ubuntu for desktop, cloud and server deployments. I had the responsibility of the office of CEO of Canonical from 2004-2010, after which Jane Silber assumed the reins and responsibility for the broader operations of the company while I’ve focused on our products.
I’m passionate about the triple thrusts of cadence, design and quality in open source. I believe that free software can become the de facto standard way the world builds and experiences all software, and if we want that to happen we need to embrace all three ideas widely across the free software ecosystem. Right now, I’m focused on design, championing the idea of design-driven development and find ways to bring design thinking into the open source process. We don’t just want to design Ubuntu, we want to inspire the whole free software ecosystem to produce software which feels “brilliantly and beautifully designed”. Most of my own design energy goes into Unity, the unique interface that Canonical built for netbooks with Ubuntu.
A long time ago, I studied finance and information technology at the University of Cape Town, and went on to found Thawte, a company specialising in digital certificates and cryptography. VeriSign bought Thawte in 1999, and and I went on to found HBD, an investment company, and The Shuttleworth Foundation, which funds innovative thinkers to bring about change in society. I moved to London in 2001, and began preparing for the First African in Space mission, training in Star City, Russia, and Khazakstan. In April 2002 I flew in space, as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34 to the International Space Station.
Today I live on the lovely Isle of Man, along with 12 ducks, the equally lovely Claire, and occasionally the neighbour’s sheep.
The Long Version
Mark Shuttleworth is an African entrepreneur with a love of technology, innovation, change and space flight.
He currently lives in the Isle of Man, and is an active member of the Ubuntu community – working to create a universal, freely available high quality desktop software environment for everyone. He funds HBD Venture Capital, an investment company based in South Africa, along with The Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit organisation that accelerates social innovation in Africa with a particular focus on education.
Mark was born in the dusty gold-mining town of Welkom in South Africa, and grew up in beautiful Cape Town. While studying towards a degree in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Cape Town (UCT) the Internet first came to SA, and he became intrigued by the changes it would bring in business and society.
In 1995, his final year at UCT, Mark founded Thawte as an Internet consulting business. The focus of the company quickly shifted to electronic commerce and Internet security. Thawte became the first company to produce a full-security encrypted e-commerce web server that was commercially available outside the United States. This brought Thawte to the world of public key infrastructure, which is the basis for all encrypted and authenticated Internet transactions. Thawte was one of the first companies to be recognized by both Netscape and Microsoft as a trusted third party for web site certification, and it quickly established a leadership position helping businesses around the world accept secure transactions over the web. By 1999, when it was acquired by VeriSign, Thawte was fastest-growing internet certificate authority worldwide, and the leading certificate authority outside of the USA.
Believing that investment is an important part of development, Mark formed the HBD investment company. The name is a reference to the phrase “Here Be Dragons”, which legend has it was used to describe uncharted territory on early maps. HBD primarily invests in Africa, but has a global perspective and seeks opportunities worldwide.
Bringing risk capital to civil society, Mark created the Shuttleworth Foundation, which funds people that have the potential to bring about dramatic improvements to some aspect of society. The Foundation has worked in all 9 provinces of South Africa, underwriting initiatives from teachers, small businesses and private individuals. The Foundation is a catalyst for accelerated change in society, with the general theme of greater openness and effectiveness. It seeks to identify people that have the potential to create tremendous change for good, and amplifies their own investment in their vision.
In April 2002 Mark realised a lifelong dream to fly in space. He spent a year working on the project, including seven months of formal training at Star City in Russia, and almost as much time in medical testing, science program development and negotiations. The First African in Space project was without doubt the most challenging and exciting project any geek could wish for. He was a member of the crew of Soyuz TM-34, launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and docked with the International Space Station two days later. The mission included 8 days working on the ISS, conducting a program of South African science experiments and enjoying the extraordinary environment of weightlessness before coming back to earth with a bump. Since then, he has worked on a roadshow to share that experience as well as his excitement about science, mathematics and technology with pupils across South Africa. The science and maths show has been seen by more than 100,000 pupils from nearly 2,000 schools. It has spawned a plethora of initiatives under the Hip2BSquare brand, which aim to make mathematics and science sexy to pupils who are choosing their subjects for high school.
In early 2004, Mark founded the Ubuntu project, which aims to produce a high quality desktop and server operating system that is freely available all over the world. The project brings together the very best of the free software stack, with cutting-edge desktop and handheld innovation and very solid server-side infrastructure. Ubuntu aims to be beautiful, easy to use, free, and complete. Related projects include specialised desktop environments for schools, and for the needs of people in specific countries or industries, such as Edubuntu and Kubuntu.
Likes: spring, cesaria evora, slashdot, chelsea, finally seeing something obvious for the first time, daydreaming, coming home, sinatra, sundowners, durbanville, flirting, string theory, particle physics, linux, python, mp3s, reincarnation, snow, mig-29s, travel, lime marmalade, mozilla, body shots, leopards, the african bush, rajhastan, snowboarding, russian saunas, weightlessness, broadband, iain m banks, alastair reynolds, skinny-dipping, fancy dress, flashes of insight, inexplicable happinesses, post-adrenaline euphoria, convertibles, country roads, clifton, the international space station, artificial intelligence, wikipedia, kitesurfing, manx lanes.
Dislikes: admin, legalese, salary negotiations, public speaking.