Just 11 days since Brendan Eich resigned as Mozilla's CEO the open source tech company has tapped a former chief marketing officer to serve as interim leader, as well as a board director, while a search continues for a new permanent chief.
The interim CEO is Chris Beard, who has a long history with Mozilla and is currently an executive in residence at venture-firm Greylock Partners. Eich, who was named to the CEO post on March 24, was forced to resign after social media backlash erupted when it was learned he had donated $1,000 in opposition to California's same-sex marriage proposition.
"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," Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman of Mozilla, said on Mozilla's blog Monday.
The news come as Mozilla strives to rebuild its stature among the open source community given the Eich resignation and what company leaders admitted was a failure to respond quick and appropriately to the protests over Eich's political donation. Eich co-founded mozilla.org
The day his resignation was announced Baker posted a blog with an apology to users, stating Mozilla "must do better" and "supports equality for all."
Upon learning about Eich's political views on gay marriage, Mozilla employees took to Twitter to express disappointment and anger. Some called for his resignation, others called on Eich to change his view.
The incident illustrates the findings of a new study that reveals an increasing number of employees are tapping social media tools to express feedback on company and leadership decisions.
On top of that, within the technology industry, there is typically wider range and greater leeway given the creative and open work environments most open source vendors are constantly promoting. Mozilla invites employees to be open and honest about their views.
The company's statement on the resignation actually mentions the issue.
"Our culture of openness extends to encouraging staff and community to share their beliefs and opinions in public. This is meant to distinguish Mozilla from most organizations and hold us to a higher standard. But this time we failed to listen, to engage, and to be guided by our community. While painful, the events of the last week show exactly why we need the web. So all of us can engage freely in the tough conversations we need to make the world better."
Eich's blog post on April 3 notes he plans to "take a rest, take some trips with my family, look at problems from other angles, and see if the "network problem" has a solution that doesn't require scaling up to hundreds of millions of users and winning their trust while somehow covering costs. I encourage all Mozillians to keep going. Firefox OS is even more daunting, and more important. Thanks indeed to all who have supported me, and to all my colleagues over the years, at Mozilla, in standards bodies, and at conferences around the world. I will be less visible online, but still around."
Baker's blog post Monday said the idea of Beard joining the company's board was already in discussion.
"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. I have relied on his judgment and advice for nearly a decade. This is an excellent time for Chris to bring his understanding of Mozilla to the Board," writes Baker.
The decision to name him as interim CEO was a natural one, writes Baker, given his deep background with the company.
"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. Chris is the right person to lead us through this time and he is a strong candidate for CEO," she writes.
The goal now for Mozilla, states the blog, is to act quickly and decisively and advance the Firefox OS.
"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. Next steps include a long-term plan for the CEO role, adding board members who can help Mozilla succeed and continuing our efforts to actively support each Mozillian to reach his or her full potential as a leader."
