Michael Widenius

Ulf Michael Widenius
Michael 'Monty' Widenius
Born	March 3, 1962 (1962-03-03) (age 49) Helsinki, Finland
Occupation	Co-Founder of MySQL AB Author of the MySQL Server and MariaDB fork
Website
http://monty-says.blogspot.com/

Ulf Michael Widenius (often called Monty), born 3 March 1962, in Helsinki, Finland, is the main author of the original version of the open-source MySQL database and a founding member of the MySQL AB company.

After studying at (although not graduating from) the Helsinki University of Technology, Widenius started working for Tapio Laakso Oy in 1981. In 1985 he founded TCX DataKonsult AB (a Swedish data warehousing company) with Allan Larsson.^[1] In 1995 he began writing the first version of the MySQL database with David Axmark, released in 1996. He is the co-author of the MySQL Reference Manual, published by O'Reilly in June 2002; and in 2003 he was awarded the Finnish Software Entrepreneur of The Year prize. Until MySQL AB's sale to Sun Microsystems in January 2008,^[2] he was the chief technical officer of MySQL AB and still one of the primary forces behind the ongoing development of MySQL.^[3] Due to selling MySQL to Sun, Widenius earned about 16.6 million € in capital gains in 2008 (16.8 million € total income), making the top 10 of highest earners in Finland that year.^[4][5]

On 5 February 2009, he announced that he was leaving Sun in order to create his own company.^[6]

He lives in Helsinki with his second wife Anna and daughter Maria, and has a daughter My (after whom MySQL is named, according to "History of MySQL") and a son Max (giving the name for MaxDB) from his first marriage. According to the MySQL documentation's history, it is unclear and a mystery for David Axmark where the "My" prefix originated.

Monty is currently working on a branch of the MySQL code base with the Aria storage engine. The product is known affectionately as MariaDB, named after his youngest daughter. MariaDB is a product of Monty Program AB (website)

On 12 December 2009, Monty asked MySQL customers to lobby the EC with regards to the Oracle acquisition of Sun, citing concerns about potential Oracle control of MySQL,^[7] this resulted in an online petition campaign called "Help MySQL".

References

1. ^ "MySQL AB Management Team". MySQL AB. http://www.mysql.com/company/management.html. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
2. ^ "Sun to Acquire MySQL". MySQL AB. http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/sun-to-acquire-mysql.html. Retrieved 2008-09-05. 
3. ^ Kaj Arnö. "Monty: The First MySQL Fellow". Kaj Arnö. http://www.planetmysql.org/kaj/?p=108. Retrieved 2007-06-18. 
4. ^ "Suomen 100 suurituloisinta 2008". Ilta-Sanomat. 2009-11-02. http://www.iltasanomat.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/uutinen.asp?id=1748083. Retrieved 2009-11-06. 
5. ^ "Verotiedot 2008". Helsingin Sanomat. http://www.hs.fi/verotiedot/list.do?personPattern=widenius&year=2008&submit=%A0Hae+tiedot%A0. Retrieved 2009-11-06. 
6. ^ "Time to move on". Monty's blog. http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/02/time-to-move-on.html. Retrieved 2009-02-05. 
7. ^ "Help saving MySQL". Monty's blog. http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/12/help-saving-mysql.html. Retrieved 2009-12-12. 

External links

• MariaDB FAQ
• iTWire interview with Monty

Persondata
Name	Widenius, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	3 March 1962
Place of birth	Helsinki, Finland
Date of death
Place of death