Name Geir Ivarsoy | ||
 | ||
Born June 27, 1957
Norway ( 1957-06-27 ) Died March 9, 2006(2006-03-09) (aged 48) Occupation founder and lead programmer of Opera software | ||
Geir Ivarsøy (June 27, 1957 – March 9, 2006) was the lead programmer at Opera Software. He and Jon von Tetzchner were part of a research group at the Norwegian state phone company (now known as Telenor) where they developed browsing software called MultiTorg Opera. The project was abandoned by Telenor, but in 1995 Geir and Jon obtained the rights to the software, formed a company of their own, and continued working on it.
Now known simply as Opera, the browser has become very popular despite the competition. Opera Software has grown to more than 500 employees since it first moved to its present offices in Oslo.
At a board meeting in January 2004, Geir Ivarsøy announced his wish to resign as a board member in Opera Software, though he remained active in the company even after that. In June 2005 he was elected as a member of the Nomination Committee of the company.
Ivarsøy died in March 2006 after a long battle with cancer. Opera distributions starting with Version 9 state "In memory of Geir Ivarsøy" on their opera:about page.