Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner in January 2008
Born (1967-08-29) 29 August 1967
Reykjavík, Iceland
Occupation Businessman

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner or, in Icelandic, Jón (born 29 August 1967 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Icelandic programmer and businessman. He founded the company Vivaldi Technologies and launched a community site called Vivaldi.net. Tetzchner is also a co-founder and the former CEO of Opera Software.

Early life

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner is the son of the Icelander Elsa Jónsdóttir and the Norwegian Stephen von Tetzchner, a professor of psychology. Tetzchner grew up around Skólabraut in the Reykjavík suburb of Seltjarnarnes with his grandparents, the doctor Jón Gunnlaugsson and Selma Kaldalóns, the daughter of the doctor and composer Sigvaldi Kaldalóns. Tetzchner went to secondary school at the Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík before continuing his studies in Norway, where he made his career.[1]

Tetzchner holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Oslo.[2]

Opera Software

Tetzchner worked at the Norwegian state phone company (now known as Telenor) from 1991 to 1995.[2] There, he and Geir Ivarsøy developed browsing software called MultiTorg Opera. The project was abandoned by Telenor, but Ivarsøy and von Tetzchner obtained the rights to the software, formed a company named Opera Software in 1995 and continued working on the Opera browser.[2]

On the 21st of April 2005, Tetzchner proclaimed at an internal meeting of Opera Software that if the download numbers of the browser's new version Opera 8 reached one million within four days, he would swim across the Atlantic Ocean from Norway to the United States.[3] Two days later, on the 23rd, the downloads reached 1,050,000 and Tetzchner had to fulfill his challenge.[4] The Opera site covered the swim and its quick failure.[4]

In January 2010, Tetzchner stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Opera Software, but he continued to serve Opera as a strategic adviser.[5]

In June 2011, Tetzchner announced that he was leaving Opera Software.[6]

Vivaldi Technologies

In December 2013, Tetzchner founded the company Vivaldi Technologies and launched the online community site vivaldi.net. Vivaldi.net includes a forum, blogs, chat, photo sharing and a free email service named Vivaldi Mail.[7]

On 27 January 2015, Vivaldi Technologies released the web browser Vivaldi.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Jón G. Hauksson, Björgólfur Thor og Jón Tetzchner: Íslendingar eiga tvo leiðtoga í 237 manna hópi „Ungra leiðtoga" sem taka þátt í verkefninu Forum of Young Global Leaders, Frjáls verslun, 67.1 (2005), 16--22 (p. 17); ISSN 1017-3544.
  2. 1 2 3 "About Opera, Executive team". Opera Software. Archived from the original on 14 December 2008. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  3. ↑ "The one million download challenge of Opera 8: Opera's CEO will swim from Norway to the USA". Opera Software. 21 April 2005. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 Osborne, Brian (27 April 2005). "Opera CEO fulfills Download Challenge … sort of". Geek.com. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  5. ↑ "Opera appoints Lars Boilesen new Chief Executive Officer". Opera Software. 5 January 2010. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "Jon S. von Tetzchner is leaving Opera Software". Opera Software. 24 June 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  7. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (23 January 2014). "Opera’s Former CEO Launches Vivaldi, A New Community Site And Email Service". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  8. ↑ Dagenborg, Joachim (February 6, 2015). "Vivaldi browser hits 500,000 downloads in first 10 days". Reuters. Oslo, Norway. Archived from the original on February 8, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015.

External links

Wikinews has related news: Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO for Opera speaks against DotMobi
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