Maybe all this publicity will be good for Mozilla Firefox, once the hot young internet browser but now old news compared to Google Chrome's emergence. In a span of a week, they hired and then fired (or asked him to resign) Brandon Eich as CEO for his monetary donation ($1,000) eight years ago to Proposition 8, intended to outlaw gay marriage in the state of California.
On Monday, Mozilla announced (in a blog post, as they usually do) former long-time employee Beard as their interim CEO -- with the possibility of him becoming a full time CEO, Digital Trends reported. That Mozilla would begin their new relationship with Beard on an interim basis might be indicative of the carefulness they gained following the Reich hiring. Beard will also serve on the board of directors.
"In this time of transition there is no better person to lead us," wrote Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's executive chairwoman as well as their unofficial spokeswoman, in a post titled "Mozilla Moving Forward." "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. In the early years at Mozilla he was responsible for leading the Mozilla product, marketing and innovation teams. More recently, Chris was our CMO, leading user, developer and community engagement activities globally, including the initial launches of Firefox on Android and Firefox OS at MWC."
"We intend to use recent events as a catalyst to develop and expand Mozilla's leadership. Appointing Chris as our interim CEO is a first step in this process," Baker added later in the post as a reference to the Eich hiring.
Once Mozilla made the decision to promote Eich a few weeks ago, it was a no-win for the non-profit organization (which also has a for-profit branch). They were heavily criticized for hiring him, and nearly just as criticized for firing him over his mostly private beliefs crystallized in a donation he made many years ago.
