Michael Widenius
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Ulf Michael Widenius (often called Monty), born March 3, 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. 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.
As of 2004 he is the chief technical officer of MySQL AB and still one of the primary forces behind the ongoing development of MySQL. He lives in Helsinki with his second wife Anna and daughter Maria, and has a daughter My (possibly giving the name for MySQL) and a son Max (possibly giving the name for MaxDB) from his first marriage. According to the MySQL documentation's history, it is unclear and a mystery to MySQL founders themselves where the "My" prefix originated.