Jon steps down as CEO of Opera

January 5, 2010 · by Haavard

Jon has stepped down as CEO of Opera after 15 years of running the company.

It's fairly normal for the founder to step down after a while and let someone else take over the CEO seat. Jon's new title of "Co-founder" seems to allow him to do all the exciting stuff he did as CEO, but avoid all the boring stuff like paperwork. He will still be working full-time for Opera in a leading and strategic role.

Our new CEO is Lars Boilesen. With more than 20 years of management experience, and apparently being hand-picked by Jon, I'm guessing he's the right man for the job.

Say goodbye to Jon the CEO. Say hello to Jon the Co-founder. He is no longer being chained by the CEO role, so I hope we haven't created a monster

The Choose Opera blog has some words from Jon himself.

Readers' comments 20

Left under the original article, as archived.

endless loveTuesday, January 5, 2010 2:10:57 PM
Daniel HendrycksTuesday, January 5, 2010 5:02:07 PM
*Happy/Sad* Has this already taken place or will the transition be in a few weeks?
Cutting SpoonTuesday, January 5, 2010 6:47:34 PM
Nice. He may finally complete that swim?
andolTuesday, January 5, 2010 10:35:14 PM
He is no longer being chained by the CEO role, so I hope we haven't created a monster

I rather hope that Opera will not become a monster now.
Daniel HendrycksTuesday, January 5, 2010 11:50:04 PM
Could the Opera Community ask him questions like we did with Jon? http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Whistle.gif -
TurinWednesday, January 6, 2010 3:19:20 AM
Daniel, that is a great idea. It would be good to get to know the name behind the face.
Charles SchlossWednesday, January 6, 2010 7:44:02 AM
Also not many know how Geir Ivarsøy is.

I beat Tamil and Jon would have a great time talking
HaavardWednesday, January 6, 2010 8:05:16 AM
Originally posted by DanielHendrycks:

Has this already taken place or will the transition be in a few weeks?

It's already done.
Pallab DeWednesday, January 6, 2010 2:12:56 PM
Originally posted by Charles Schloss:

Also not many know how Geir Ivarsøy is.

If I am not mistaken he passed away few years back.
Daniel HendrycksWednesday, January 6, 2010 5:00:35 PM
Originally posted by Pallab De:

Originally posted by Charles Schloss:
Also not many know how Geir Ivarsøy is.

If I am not mistaken he passed away few years back.

Yup, cancer.
ToxigeneThursday, January 7, 2010 12:10:07 PM
If you look at the bottom of the Opera:about page, you can see "In memory of Geir Ivarsøy.".
Charles SchlossThursday, January 7, 2010 5:27:10 PM
Originally posted by Toxigene:

If you look at the bottom of the Opera:about page, you can see "In memory of Geir Ivarsøy.".

http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Yes.gif -

Death in the Family
http://my.opera.com/jax/blog/show.dml/183784
Idan AdarFriday, January 8, 2010 4:36:28 AM
Haavard, and what about this? http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/01/opera-expands-mobile-sdk-lineup-amid-losses.ars
HaavardFriday, January 8, 2010 10:30:00 AM
If you are referring to the talk about losses and struggling, we've made some heavy investments lately. I'm sure you have seen Opera Mini 5, Mobile 10 and Opera 10.50 for desktop (you haven't even seen the full results of the investments going into the mobile product lines). We also established a development office in Poland in the quarter. I'm not sure where he gets the idea that we are struggling to find demand. We don't even have enough engineering resources to cover the demand (although this should certainly help us deliver more with less resources).

But this is sort of off-topic, and Jon's departure has been planned for at least a year. It had nothing to do with any financial results.
Idan AdarFriday, January 8, 2010 10:32:17 AM
Yeah I was curious about the link the article writer made between losses and Jon's exit from the CEO position.
Thanks.
FavSaturday, January 9, 2010 9:18:22 AM
Originally posted by haavard:

If you are referring to the talk about losses and struggling, we've made some heavy investments lately. I'm sure you have seen Opera Mini 5, Mobile 10 and Opera 10.50 for desktop (you haven't even seen the full results of the investments going into the mobile product lines). We also established a development office in Poland in the quarter. I'm not sure where he gets the idea that we are struggling to find demand. We don't even have enough engineering resources to cover the demand (although this should certainly help us deliver more with less resources).

But this is sort of off-topic, and Jon's departure has been planned for at least a year. It had nothing to do with any financial results.

I don't quite understand that, did Opera 10.50 required any additional investments? I mean, don't you just have guys who works in Opera 24/7 for regular pay? Maybe Unite required additional stuff, like servers, etc. but I fail to see what Opera 10.50 did bring to the table this quarter (as I am sure, you already spent some money on it before, not just this quarter), that caused heavy investments.
HaavardSaturday, January 9, 2010 1:23:28 PM
I'm afraid I can't go into details. Needless to say, this is just one of several major investments in the quarter. There's also more to a browser than just the user interface. Opera is a cross-platform browser as well.
FavSunday, January 10, 2010 8:59:14 AM
Originally posted by haavard:

I'm afraid I can't go into details. Needless to say, this is just one of several major investments in the quarter. There's also more to a browser than just the user interface. Opera is a cross-platform browser as well.

I see, well, with Opera 10.5, future looks bright for you, guys.
Ayodele AdebabsThursday, January 21, 2010 10:06:24 AM
In everything under the sun there is time & season for it
Ayodele AdebabsThursday, January 21, 2010 10:10:49 AM
In everything under the sun there is time & season for it.it time to take some rest after so many paper work,JON Congratulation