Speakers

Mark Shuttleworth

Founder of Thawte, first African in space, technology and education philanthropist and most recently, founder of the Ubuntu Linux project.

Mark's contribution to the open source community is far reaching, and his sharp insight into open technology, open source software in Africa, emerging market interest in open source computing and regional agendas is sure to make his keynote address a memorable experience. Mark studied finance and information technology at the University of Cape Town, and went on to found Thawte, a company specialising in digital certificates and internet privacy. He sold Thawte to US company VeriSign in 1999, and founded HBD Venture Capital and The Shuttleworth Foundation. In April 2002 Mark flew in space for the first time, as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34 to the International Space Station. Mark was born and raised in South Africa, and is currently living in London, where he researches new projects and technologies.