"Marten Mickos is probably best known for his time as chief executive of open source database company MySQL, a position he held from 2001 until the beginning of 2009.
"During his time there, he guided the company to a position where it was challenging the database giants and was snapped up by Sun Microsystems in early 2008 for a cool $1bn.
"Of his success with MySQL, Mickos is modest, suggesting he was in the right place at the right time. "I was intrigued by open source when I joined MySQL and I did somehow sense that this could be a very big thing. There was some good serendipity involved and just a hunch feeling that this could be a big thing," he told silicon.com."
