Mozilla Foundation announced that it has appointed Chris Beard as its interim Chief Executive Officer, waiting to find a person who can take the position permanently after Brendan Eich’s resignation. Beard also joins the Foundation’s board of directors.
After earning an MBA at the University of Edinburgh, Chris Beard has worked for various companies such as HP and Sun Microsystems in roles related to marketing. In 1998 he was among the founders of The Puffin Group, where he was CEO for two years, before it was acquired by Linuxcare.
In 2004 Chris Beard started working for Mozilla Foundation, where he’s been the chief marketing officer (CMO). In this role, he helped launch the Firefox browser, the Foundation’s flagship product. More recently, he managed the launch of Firefox for Android and Firefox OS.
Last year, Chris Beard left Mozilla Foundation to work for Greylock Partners, one of the oldest venture capital firms but kept on acting as adviser to the foundation. After the brief but turbulent period with Brendan Eich as CEO, the board of directors has chosen another person who knows Mozilla perfectly but won’t give rise to controversies.
Mitchell Baker, the executive president of the Mozilla Foundation, stated that no one better than Chris Beard can manage this unexpected transition period. The issue with Brendan Eich shook up the Foundation, also in its board of directors. Baker stated that Beard’s appointment is only the first step in a new process of development and expansion for Mozilla.
The next steps include the final choice of the CEO but also the addition of new members to Mozilla Foundation’s board of directors. The challenges that Brendan Eich was supposed to face could become even more difficult because of this unforeseen situation.
A transition is always complex to handle because there is a risk that Chris Beard ends up just carrying out the Foundation’s ordinary administration delaying the development of long-term plans. He’ll need to work in accordance with the Board of Directors to allow Mozilla to not lose ground to competitors at a delicate time.
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