The South African who sold his tech company for R3.5 billion and went to space

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Besides becoming the first African in space, he founded the world’s most popular Linux distribution and helped popularise the term “ubuntu” around the world.

Mark Shuttleworth became a dollar millionaire in 1999 when he sold his Internet security company Thawte Consulting to Verisign for $575 million — R3.5 billion at the time.

Although both were labelled space tourists, Tito and Shuttleworth were required to work aboard the ISS. However, Baudry’s official biographies always refer to him as the second French citizen in space. He also served in the French military as a fighter pilot and participated in space missions under the French flag.It is perhaps most correct to refer to Baudry as the first African-born astronaut, while Shuttleworth was the first citizen of an independent African nation in space.His fascination with technology began as a child when he discovered computer games.

Thawte’s focus quickly shifted to providing security certificates for encrypted communications online. This brought him to the world of public key infrastructure and caught the attention of Netscape’s security group, creating an opportunity for Thawte to be a global certificate authority for the web. He also established The Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit that supported African innovation in education.

 

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