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Our excitement here at WOT HQ has been building as discussions were conducted, ideas batted around and signatures placed on the dotted line. At last, the famed open source hero and creator of MySQL, Michael "Monty" Widenius, is joining our team! He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and an influential contact network that will help to expedite our growth and take the company to the next level.

About Monty

Monty started to write the first version of his database back in 1982. In 1994 he wrote an SQL interface on top of his old code and together with the other founders, David Axmark and Allan Larsson, released it in 1996 to the public.

MySQL has since grown to become an open source icon and the world's most popular open source database. It was acquired by Sun Microsystems in January 2008 for an impressive sum (one billion dollars - that's $1,000,000,000). Monty had a key role in the company until recently, when he announced his resignation.

Now Monty embarks on his next adventure. He will focus on his company, Monty Program AB, and the development of the Maria engine, a transactional storage engine for MySQL. And through his investment company Open Ocean, he is seeking to invest in disruptive technology start-up companies that create open source and community products. WOT is pleased to among the first of these companies.

Greetings from Monty

"I am thrilled to join the Web of Trust team and will do my best to help it reach new heights. My years at MySQL have taught me the power of user-driven services, and I appreciate and value the contribution that each of you provide to the Web of Trust community by rating and commenting on websites! I am actively using WOT myself and actively encouraging people I meet to try it out and become a part of the WOT community! Together let's make the Internet a better place!"

Send your greetings or comments to Monty, m o n t y (at) a s k m o n t y (dot) o r g. Read more at his blog Monty Says.

Press release