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After the controversies involving Mozilla’s previous CEO Brendan Eich regarding his anti-gay marriage political views, Mozilla’s new CEO was announced: his name is Chris Beard and he will be chief executive officer replacing the former CEO who resigned after donating money to an anti-gay marriage support group. Brendan Eich only lasted in his position for about two weeks.
Mozilla’s new interim CEO Chris Beard has been an executive in residence at Greylock Partners which is a venture firm and he was also marketing chief for Mozilla. Beard has been involved with Mozilla since Firefox was created.
Mitchell Baker, the executive chairwoman for Mozilla said praised Beard saying that he has a very clear vision of how to take Mozilla’s vision further and turn it into programs and products. Baker also said that the election of the new CEO comes right in the middle of an unexpected leadership transition at Mozilla.
Baker wrote that “Chris has been a Mozillian longer than most. He’s been actively involved with Mozilla since before we shipped Firefox 1.0, he’s guided and directed many of our innovative projects, and his vision and sense of Mozilla is equal to anyone’s. In this time of transition there is no better person to lead us. Chris has one of the clearest visions of how to take the Mozilla mission and turn it into programs and activities and product ideas that I have ever seen.”
Chris Beard is also a serious candidate to become the permanent CEO for Mozilla. Beard has been working for Mozilla for many years and had important leadership roles dealing with new products, marketing and innovation and has been part of two major Mozilla products: Firefox for Android and the operating system Firefox OS. Beard also handled the launch of Firefox 1.0 back in 2004.
Mozilla’s new interim CEO – the beginning of a new chapter
Beard’s appointment on Monday signals the fact that Mozilla is trying to close a difficult chapter for their organization after the previous CEO resigned due to the controversies with the anti-gay marriage issues.
Mozilla employees are also eager to start a new chapter and seemed very pleased with the decision to make Chris Beard the new interim CEO, greeting him on their Twitter accounts.
Mozilla’s new interim CEO was also very happy about his new position and twitted that he was “Excited to step in as interim CEO to continue shaping the future of the Web for public good.”
