Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur, founder and CEO ofCanonical, the company behind theUbuntu Linux operating system.[1] In 2002, Shuttleworth became the first African to travel to space, doing so as aspace tourist.[2][3][4] He holdsdual citizenship from South Africa and theUnited Kingdom.[5][6] In 2020, theSunday Times Rich List estimated Shuttleworth's net worth to be £500 million.[7]
In September 2000, Shuttleworth formed HBD Venture Capital (Here be Dragons), abusiness incubator andventure capital provider, now managed by Knife Capital.[14] In March 2004 he formed Canonical Ltd., for the promotion and commercial support offree software projects, particularly theUbuntu operating system. In December 2009, Shuttleworth stepped down as CEO of Canonical Ltd. to focus on "product design, partnerships, and customers", with COOJane Silber succeeding him.[15] Shuttleworth returned to the position of CEO of Canonical in July 2017, with Silber moving to Canonical'sboard of directors.[16]
In the 1990s, Shuttleworth participated as a developer of theDebianoperating system.[17] According to the Official Ubuntu Book, he was the first to upload theApache HTTP Server "into the Debian project's archives".[12]
In 2004, he returned to the free-software world by funding the development ofUbuntu, aLinux distribution based on Debian, through his company, Canonical Ltd.[18]
In 2005, he founded the Ubuntu Foundation and made an initial investment of US$10 million. In the Ubuntu project, Shuttleworth is often referred to with thetongue-in-cheek title "Self-AppointedBenevolent Dictator for Life" (SABDFL).[19] While travelling toAntarctica aboard theicebreakerKapitan Khlebnikov in early 2004, Shuttleworth took six months of Debianmailing list archives with him to compile a list of potential hires for the project.[20] In September 2005, he purchased a 65% stake of Impi Linux.[21]
On 15 October 2006, Mark Shuttleworth became the first patron ofKDE, the highest level of commercial sponsorship available.[22] This relationship and financial support forKubuntu (the Ubuntu variant usingKDE as the main desktop) ended in 2012.
On 17 December 2009, Shuttleworth announced that, effective March 2010, he would step down as CEO of Canonical to focus on product design, partnerships, and customers.Jane Silber, COO since 2004, succeeded him as CEO.[23]
In September 2010, he received an honorary degree from theOpen University for this work.[24]
On 25 October 2013, Shuttleworth and Ubuntu received the Austrian anti-privacyBig Brother Award for sending local UbuntuUnity Dash searches to Canonical servers by default.[26][27][28][29] In 2012, Shuttleworth had defended the anonymisation method used.[30] He later reversed the decision; this feature is not present in current Ubuntu versions.
Shuttleworth on board the International Space Station
Shuttleworth gained international attention on 25 April 2002, becoming the second self-funded space tourist (afterDennis Tito in 2001) and the first South African in space.[a] Flying throughSpace Adventures, he launched aboard the RussianSoyuz TM-34 mission as aspaceflight participant,[31] paying approximately US$20 million[32] for the voyage (equivalent to $33.24 million in 2024). Two days later, theSoyuz spacecraft arrived at theInternational Space Station, where he spent eight days participating in experiments related toAIDS andgenome research. On 5 May 2002, he returned to Earth onSoyuz TM-33. To participate in the flight, Shuttleworth underwent one year of training and preparation, including seven months inStar City, Russia.[33]
From space, he spoke via video link toThabo Mbeki, then president of South Africa, as part of theFreedom Day celebrations marking the end ofapartheid.[34]
He also had a radio conversation withNelson Mandela and a 14-year-old South African girl, Michelle Foster, who asked him to marry her. He dodged the question, stating that he was "very honoured at the question" before changing the subject.[32] The terminally ill Foster was provided the opportunity to have a conversation with Mark Shuttleworth and Nelson Mandela by the Reach for a Dream foundation.[35][36]
He owns a private jet, aBombardier Global Express, often referred to asCanonical One but owned through his HBD Venture Capital company.[37][38][39] The dragon depicted on the side of the plane is Norman, the HBD Venture Capital mascot.[40]
When moving R2.5 billion in capital from South Africa to theIsle of Man, theSouth African Reserve Bank imposed a R250 million levy to release his assets.[41] Shuttleworth successfully sued the Reserve Bank in the Supreme Court of Appeal to have the levy returned. However, on 18 June 2015, theConstitutional Court of South Africa reversed the lower courts' ruling, finding that the primary purpose of an exit charge was to regulate conduct rather than raise revenue.[42] The court held "...that the exit charge was not inconsistent with the Constitution. The dominant purpose of the exit charge was not to raise revenue but rather to regulate conduct by discouraging the export of capital to protect the domestic economy."[43]
^Shuttleworth is the first citizen of an independent African country to go into space.Patrick Baudry, an earlier astronaut, was also born in Africa; however, since Baudry's native Cameroon was a Frenchcolony at the time of his birth, he is considered a French citizen. Shuttleworth also had British citizenship at the time of his flight.
^"Canonical". Canonical Ltd. Archived fromthe original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved10 August 2017.
^"Nasa makes space tourism U-turn".BBC News Online. 12 December 2001. Retrieved2 September 2012.approval to plans to make the South African internet millionaire Mark Shuttleworth
^"Space tourist lifts off".BBC News Online. 25 April 2002. Retrieved2 September 2012.South African internet millionaire Mark Shuttleworth is heading for a short stay
^Leake, Jonathan; Swinford, Steven (19 July 2009)."It's blast-off Britain as ban on space flight ends".The Sunday Times. London.Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved28 February 2025.Mark Shuttleworth, a South African entrepreneur with dual British nationality...
^"Interesting Facts".Invitation to Bishops. BishopsDiocesan College. Archived fromthe original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved29 September 2012.Mark Shuttleworth was Head boy in 1991 and was the first Afronaut in Space on 2 April 2002
^"Honorary Awards 2010"(PDF).Conferment of Honorary Degrees and Presentation of Graduates. TheOpen University. 25 February 2010. pp. 8, 13. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 8 October 2010. Retrieved21 September 2010.Mr Mark Shuttleworth, DUniv, Versailles, 11 September
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