Jan Henric Buettner

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Jan Henric Buettner
Born (1964-09-10) September 10, 1964 (age 60)
Hamburg, Germany
OccupationEntrepreneur
SpouseHolly Chelsea Marie Buettner [1]

Jan Henric Buettner (born 10 September 1964) [2] [3] is a German entrepreneur. He is married to Holly Chelsea Marie Buettner. [1]

Contents

Biography

Born in Hamburg, Buettner studied business management there and did an internship at a precursor of Vodafone, then started his career as a trainee at Axel Springer AG, where he worked on interactive media. [3] [4] In 1995 he developed AOL Europe with Andreas von Blottnitz. He became head of AOL Germany, then in 1997 moved to the US, where he established a venture capital firm specialising in internet companies, BV Capital, as general partner for Bertelsmann. [3] [5] [6] In 2003 he and Blottnitz were awarded €203 million in damages by a California court for Bertelsmann's failure to pay them part of the proceeds from the sale of its share in AOL Europe; the amount was reduced to €160 million in an out-of-court agreement. [3] [4] [5]

In 2005 he bought a historic estate by the Baltic Sea for €7 million, [2] [4] [7] and converted the estate buildings and village into Grand Village Weissenhaus, a privately operated luxury resort which opened in 2014. [5] [8] [9] Some of the funding for the renovation and conversion was raised on the crowdfunding site Companisto.de, [8] [9] where it drew more investment than any other for-profit European organisation to that date. [10] [11] In 2024, Buettner organized a high profile chess tournament at his resort, the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge. [12] Buettner and five time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen announced in March 2024 that the tournament would expand into a yearly series of events with increased prize funds. [13]

Buettner lives in Hamburg; his former wife and their children continue to live in Santa Barbara, California. [5]

References

  1. 1 2 ""We're breaking new ground"". WEISSENHAUS – WORLD OF FREESTYLE CHESS. Retrieved 2025-07-22.
  2. 1 2 Nina Schwarz, "Neu im Club: California Dreaming – Jan Henric Buettner", club!, 5 September 2013 (in German).
  3. 1 2 3 4 Niko Rönnfeldt, "80-Millionen-Coup bei Erdbeerkuchen" Archived 2014-11-12 at the Wayback Machine , Kieler Nachrichten , 10 March 2014 (in German).
  4. 1 2 3 Gerhard Waldherr, "Und jetzt was Handfestes", brand eins 12/2011 (in German)
  5. 1 2 3 4 Martin U. Müller, tr. Ella Ornstein, "For Millionaires, By Millionaires: Transforming a Baltic Sea Village into Paradise", Der Spiegel , 11 January 2013.
  6. ↑ John Johnson, "High-Tech Firms Plug Into Santa Barbara Lifestyle", Los Angeles Times , 31 May 2000, p. 2.
  7. ↑ Dorothea Topf, "Jan Henric Buettner - Zurück zu den Wurzeln", Made in Germany, Deutsche Welle , 16 April 2013 (video) (in German).
  8. 1 2 Maren Hoffmann, "Luxusresort Weissenhaus: Keine Angst vorm Millionärswatching", Der Spiegel, 20 June 2014 (in German)
  9. 1 2 Maren Hoffmann, "75 Hektar Luxus", Manager, 27 June 2014 (in German)
  10. ↑ Dalia Fahmy, "Germans Warm to Crowdfunding as Resort Attracts Investors ", Bloomberg Businessweek , 27 August 2014.
  11. ↑ David Drake, "Five Realty Crowdfunding Projects Raising $50M Or More", My Say, Forbes , 4 November 2014.
  12. ↑ Pütz, Florian (2024-02-14). "Treffen sich ein Multimillionär, Miss Angola und Schachstar Magnus Carlsen am Weißenhäuser Strand..." Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN   2195-1349. Archived from the original on 2024-02-14. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  13. ↑ "Carlsen, Buettner Unveil Extravagant Chess960 Grand Slam Tour Across 5 Continents". Chess.com. 2024-03-16.
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