Ian Jackson is a longtime free software author and Debian developer.
Jackson wrote dpkg[1][2][3] (replacing a more primitive Perl tool with the same name), SAUCE (Software Against Unsolicited Commercial Email), userv and debbugs.
Jackson has a PhD in Computer Science[4] from Cambridge University.
[10] Jackson became Debian Project Leader in January 1998, before Wichert Akkerman took his place in 1999.
During that time he was also a vice-president and then president of Software in the Public Interest in 1998 and 1999.