Mark founded the Ubuntu project in 2004 and continues to serve as an active member of the Technical Board and the Community Council. He works with product teams at Canonical on strategy and user 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.

He moved to London in 2001, and began preparing for the First African in Space mission, training in Star City and Kazakhstan. In April 2002, Mark flew to the International Space Station as a cosmonaut member of the crew of Soyuz mission TM34.

Mark believes that “Ubuntu’s success adds to the success of free software. So as much as it is fun, challenging, the opportunity of a lifetime, a profession for some and a passion for others, it’s also changing the world.”