# Mark Shuttleworth

> Mark Shuttleworth is the South African and British founder and CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. He founded digital-certificate company Thawte, sold it to VeriSign in a deal announced at $575 million in 1999, flew to the International Space Station in 2002, and founded Canonical in 2004. His work spans commercially supported open-source software, investment and open philanthropy.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Canonical
- **Organizations:** Canonical, Ubuntu, Thawte (founder; sold to VeriSign), Shuttleworth Foundation, Ubuntu Foundation, HBD Venture Capital
- **From:** Welkom, South Africa
- **Nationality:** South African and British
- **Education:** Bachelor of Business Science in Finance and Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Diocesan College (Bishops)
- **Known for:** Founded Thawte and sold it to VeriSign in a transaction announced at $575 million., Became the first South African in space and the second self-funded visitor to the International Space Station in 2002., Founded Canonical and the Ubuntu project in 2004.

## Career timeline

- **1995** — Founded Thawte in South Africa.
- **1999** — Agreed to sell Thawte to VeriSign in a share transaction announced at $575 million.
- **2000** — Established HBD Venture Capital (Here Be Dragons).
- **2001** — Established the Shuttleworth Foundation.
- **2002** — Flew to the ISS on Soyuz TM-34; launched 25 April and returned 5 May on Soyuz TM-33.
- **2004** — Founded Canonical and launched the Ubuntu project; Ubuntu 4.10 arrived in October.
- **2005** — Announced the Ubuntu Foundation with Canonical and an initial $10 million funding commitment.
- **2010** — Handed the Canonical CEO role to Jane Silber.
- **2017** — Ended Canonical investment in Unity8 and phone convergence; returned as CEO in July.
- **2026** — Appeared with Jon Seager in the Ubuntu Summit 26.04 welcome keynote, published in May.

## Achievements

- Founded Thawte and sold it to VeriSign in a transaction announced at $575 million.
- Became the first South African in space and the second self-funded visitor to the International Space Station in 2002.
- Founded Canonical and the Ubuntu project in 2004.
- Established the Shuttleworth Foundation to support social innovation and open knowledge.
- Received an honorary degree from the Open University in 2010.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — Canonical released Ubuntu 26.10, Stonking Stingray, on 15 October 2026.
- **2026-05** — Canonical Ubuntu published a Summit 26.04 welcome keynote featuring Shuttleworth and Jon Seager on agentic engineering, snaps, LXD and microVMs.
- **2026-04** — Canonical released Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Resolute Raccoon, on 23 April, including AI tooling support and desktop, server and security improvements.

## Links

- Website: https://www.markshuttleworth.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-shuttleworth/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/sabdfl

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/mark-shuttleworth
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21