Mozilla on Monday named Chris Beard, who had been serving as the company’s interim CEO since April this year, as its permanent Chief Executive.
Beard stepped in as interim CEO, when Brendan Eich stepped down in less than two weeks time amid controversy surrounding his donation in support of a ban on gay marriage in California in 2008.
Announcing Beard’s appointment, Mitchell Baker, Mozilla chairwoman, in an official blog said that the Mozilla board has reviewed many internal and external candidates for the CEO post but could not found anyone better eligible for the post than Beard.
Baker said that as Beard had previously been a Mozillian and was actively involved in shipping Firefox 1.0 as well as leading many of the company’s most innovative projects, so, he has a better idea of where Mozilla has been and where the company is headed to.
She added that Beard has unique experience connecting with each and every constituency that touches the company’s products, including consumers, partners and community members and that there’s no other better person than him to lead Mozilla.
Beard had earlier worked for nearly a decade with Mozilla. He first joined the company in 2004 as head of product management and rose to the rank of chief marketing officer before leaving in 2013 to become executive in residence at venture capital firm Greylock Partners.
