Science, Medicine & Engineering
Landmark
Mark Shuttleworth
born 1973
The first African in space, and the founder of Ubuntu
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the South Africa Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
He built an internet security company in South Africa, sold it for R3.5 billion, flew to the International Space Station as the first African in space, and then funded Ubuntu.
Born in Welkom in the Free State in 1973, Mark Shuttleworth worked on the Debian project in the 1990s and founded Thawte Consulting, a digital certificate and internet security company sold to VeriSign in 1999 for R3.5 billion.
He became the first South African — and the first African — to travel to space, and in 2004 founded Canonical, which develops the Ubuntu Linux distribution.
He became the first South African — and the first African — to travel to space, and in 2004 founded Canonical, which develops the Ubuntu Linux distribution.
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