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Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner or, in Icelandic, Jón (born 29 August 1967 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Icelandic programmer and businessman. Industry pioneer and browser visionary, he is the co-founder and CEO of Vivaldi Technologies, the company behind the Vivaldi Web Browser and other services for the web's most demanding and savviest users. Before starting the Vivaldi Web browser, he 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.
Tetzchner holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Oslo.
Opera Software
Tetzchner worked at the Norwegian state phone company (now known as Telenor) from 1991 to 1995. 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.
On 21 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. Two days later, on the 23rd, the downloads reached 1,050,000 and Tetzchner had to fulfill his challenge. The Opera site covered the swim and his quick failure.
Under his leadership, Jon took Opera into a global company with more than 750 employees in 13 countries. Opera was an early pioneer in mobile web browser and more than 350 million people use Opera to enjoy the web on their own terms.
In January 2010, Tetzchner stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Opera Software, but he continued to serve Opera as a strategic adviser.
In June 2011, Tetzchner announced that he was leaving Opera Software.
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.
On 27 January 2015, Vivaldi Technologies announced the release of its new web browser Vivaldi. Its 1.0 version came out in April 2016. Jon von Tetzchner and his team are making a personal and a feature-rich browser that takes into consideration the needs of every user. Vivaldi is self-funded and aims to be this way where the employees hold equity.