1 1. Jane Silber Nominated by: Phillip Hofmeyr,
[email protected] Monu Joseph,
[email protected] Marios Andreou,
[email protected] MBA, 2003 Dean’s List · Professional excellence and accomplishment – “Apart from her success at General Dynamics, Jane has built Canonical from a 5- person organization in a bedroom to a 300 strong industry leader. Ubuntu is now the linux version of choice consumers.” “Aside from her numerous degrees and incredible smile, she builds companies. Her first, to my knowledge, was a software company in the US Defense space. While there she held a top secret US security clearance and was integrally involved in dealings with the US Pentagon and Department of Defense. She was the integral driver of the sale of that business to General Dynamics, one of the world’s largest defense firms. While there Jane rose to run one of General Dynamic’s five business units and was a direct report to CXO level officers. Please keep in mind that she built a company and made her millions in one of the most fiercely competitive and male dominated sectors in the global economy. After graduating Jane was pursued by many employers with ties to the defense space including many of the world’s largest investment banks. Eschewing the world of defense, she instead joined Mark Shuttleworth in his living room to launch Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, one of the world’s most beloved software products. This effort started in a living room in 2004 and today it is a global player with hundreds of employees in a wide variety of countries, advancing a business and social agenda.