W3C’S Hakon Wium Lie Joins Opera as Chief Technology Officer

Continuing his involvement in the W3C as a member representative for Opera

Oslo, Norway -Apr. 13, 1999

Opera Software today announced that Hakon Wium Lie hasjoined Opera as Chief Technology Officer. Lie comes to Opera from theWorld Wide Web Consortium where he has been the Style Sheets ActivityLead. He will continue his involvement in the W3C as a memberrepresentative for Opera.

 

“Opera is committed to open Web standards. Until now, we havedemonstrated this commitment by carefully reviewing and implementingW3C specifications. In the future we want to actively participate inW3C, and Hakon Wium Lie’s background makes him the ideal liaison”,said Opera’s CEO, Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner.

“It’s important for the Web and W3C that there is more than onebrowser. If a single vendor controls the browser market, it alsocontrols which W3C Recommendations — if any — will be used on theWeb. Opera is a serious competitor to the big browsers today, and Iwant to make it an even better product tomorrow”, says Lie. “By beingsmaller, faster, and offering better support for standards than thecompetitors, Opera has shown that the browser war isn’t over.”

Hakon Wium Lie will be Chief Technology Officer at Opera Software inOslo, Norway. Before joining Opera in April 1999, he was W3C’sActivity Lead for style sheets. Lie’s work on style sheets and go backto 1994, when he first proposed Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for theWeb. Lie is the co-author, along with Bert Bos, of the W3C CSS1Recommendation, and a co-editor of the CSS2 Recommendation.

About Opera Software

Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Webbrowsers for the desktop and embedded markets, partnering withcompanies such as IBM, AMD, Symbian, Canal+ Technologies, Ericsson,Sharp and Lineo (now a division of Embedix). The Opera browser hasreceived international recognition from end users and the industrypress for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than otherbrowsers. Opera is available on Windows, Mac, Linux/Solaris, OS/2,Symbian OS and QNX. Opera Software ASA is a privately held companyheadquartered in Oslo, Norway. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.