Mark Shuttleworth is a British-South African entrepreneur and space tourist with an estimated net worth of $500 million. Mark Richard Shuttleworth was born on September 18, 1973 in Welkom, Free State, South Africa. Shuttleowrth, a son of a surgeon and nursery schoolteacher graduated from Bishops/Diocesan College in 1991 with the distinction of Head Boy. He then went on to obtain his Bachelor’s of Business Science degree in Finance and IT from the University of Cape Town. While a college student, Shuttleworth helped install the first residential internet connection at the university.
In 1995 Shuttleworth founded Thawte, a company specializing in digital certificates and cryptography; it was acquired by VeriSign in 1999. In 2000 he founded HBD Venture Capital (Here be Dragons), an investment firm and business incubator.
In 2001 Mark Shuttleworth created the Shuttleworth Foundation which funds social innovation through investing in Fellows’ projects.
Mark Shuttleworth formed Ubuntu, a free operating system for desktops and servers. He also leads product design at Canonical Ltd. although he stepped down as CEO of the software marketing company in December 2009.
On April 25, 2002 Mark Shuttleworth became the second self-funded space tourist and first-ever South African to go to space. He paid approximately $20 million for the voyage and radioed Nelson Mandela while he was aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 space craft.
Mark Shuttlewoth lives on the lovely Isle of Man and owns a private jet called the Bombardier Global Express.
Mark Shuttleworth has enough net worth to buy:
1. 241,545.8 Marni Foldover Flap Backpacks ($2,070 each)
2. 25 Voyages to Space on the Russian Soyuz TM-34 ($20,000,000 each)
3. 502,512.5 Outpost Original Metal Bench X-Frames ($995 each)
Mark Shuttleworth has enough net worth to give everyone in the United States of America $1
