Mark Richard Shuttleworth was born on 18 September 1973, in Welkom, Orange Free State South Africa, and is an entrepreneur, best known for being the CEO and founder of Canonical Ltd, which is responsible for the development of the Ubuntu operating system based on Linux. He helped develop the software in 2004, but all of his efforts have helped put his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Mark Shuttleworth? As of late-2017, sources estimate a net worth that is at $500 million, mostly earned through success in business. He is also the first citizen of an independent African country to become a space tourist. As he continues his endeavors, it is expected that his wealth will also continue to increase.
Mark Shuttleworth Net Worth $500 million
Mark attended Western Province Preparatory School and would then take on a term at Rondebosch Boys’ High School, followed by Bishops/Diocesan College. After matriculating, he attended the University of Cape Town to study Finance and Information Systems, and becoming part of the installation of the first residential internet connections at the university.
After graduating, Shuttleworth founded Thawte Consulting in 1995, which specialized in internet security and digital certificates. Around this time, he was also working as one of the developers of the Debian operating system. Four years later, VeriSign would acquire Thawte for a total of $575 million, increasing Shuttleworth’s net worth significantly. In 2000, he would then create HBD Venture Capital as a provider and business incubator, leading him to create Canonical Ltd, which would fund the development of Ubuntu. He also purchased a 65% stake in Impi Linux, and travelled to Antarctica. He continued to work for Canonical until stepping down from the position in 2010. According to him, he would focus energy on customers, partnership, and product design; Jane Silber would take his place as CEO of Canonical.
During the same year, Mark was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University, and three years later, he was awarded the Austrian anti-privacy Big Brother Award. His net worth continued to grow over the years, thanks to numerous business investments.
For his personal life, it is known that Shuttleworth became the first South African in Space and second self-funded space tourist in 2002; he joined the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission and spent eight days at the International Space Station (ISS), firstly undergoing a year of training for the mission. He also owns his own private jet called Canonical One. He is a philanthropist too, creating the Shuttleworth Foundation which is dedicated to open source software projects. He also created the Ubuntu Foundation which was made through an initial investment of $10 million. He had a bit of an issue with the South African Reserve Bank after trying to move his assets from South Africa to the Isle of Man, with the bank demanding part of the assets plus interest for the move; the findings of the lower courts for the case were later set aside by the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He currently resides in Isle of Man, holding dual citizenship of South Africa and the UK. According to a blog, he dislikes public speaking. No details are known about any romantic relationships.
