Mark Spencer (computer engineer)

Mark Spencer (born April 8, 1977) is an American computer engineer and is the original author of the GTK+-based instant messaging client Gaim (which has since been renamed to Pidgin), the L2TP daemon l2tpd and the Cheops Network User Interface. Spencer is also the creator of Asterisk, a Linux-based open-sourced PBX. He was the founder, chairman and CTO of Digium, an open-source telecommunications supplier most notable for its development and sponsorship of Asterisk. Spencer shifted from CEO to chairman and CTO in early 2007. Spencer was born and raised in Auburn, Alabama. He attended Auburn University where both his parents were professors. In high school, he was mentored by another Auburn professor, Thaddeus Roppel, and Mark Smith, co-founder of Adtran. As a computer engineering major at Auburn University, Mark was the original author of the GTK+-based instant messaging client Gaim (which has since been renamed to Pidgin), the L2TP daemon l2tpd and the Cheops Network User Interface. He also co-oped at Huntsville-based networking and telecommunications corporation Adtran, and started a Linux technical support business. Unable to afford a PBX for his new company, he created the Asterisk™ Linux-based open-source PBX and founded Digium Inc, an open-source telecommunications supplier.