- published: 07 Apr 2016
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Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African entrepreneur, philanthropist, and space tourist who became the first South African in space. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2010, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system. He currently lives on the Isle of Man and holds dual citizenship of South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Shuttleworth was born in Welkom, Free State, South Africa as a son of a surgeon and a nursery school teacher. After attending school at Rondebosch Boys' High School and then Western Province Preparatory School[citation needed] and Diocesan College, Shuttleworth obtained a Business Science degree in Finance and Information Systems at the University of Cape Town in 1995 when he founded Thawte, a consulting firm that became a world leader in Internet security for electronic commerce. He sold the firm in 1999 to the U.S.-based company VeriSign and with his profits founded a venture capital firm and a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding education initiatives in Africa. He lived in Smuts Hall, where he was involved in the installation of the first residential Internet connections at the university.