Mozilla appoints former marketing chief as CEO

Mozilla on Monday appointed Chris Beard, the former chief marketing officer who was previously temporarily appointed CEO ad interim, as CEO. According to the organization behind the Firefox web browser, Beard is the right man in the right place.

Mozilla appointed Beard interim CEO in April, after the veteran had already been involved in many projects. At that time, according to Mozilla, it was already clear that he was the right man to temporarily lead the organization. After a selection procedure with internal and external candidates, he once again appeared to have the best cards. “There is simply no one better to run Mozilla as we extend Firefox’s influence into the world of mobile devices and services,” reads a blog post.

Beard was appointed interim CEO in April after a tumultuous period for Mozilla, with the previous CEO, Brendan Eich, deciding to leave just 11 days after his appointment. Eich, the creator of JavaScript, had donated money in 2008 for a law that would ban same-sex marriage in the US state of California. Critics felt that his actions were inconsistent with the principles Mozilla should follow.

Canadian Beard joined Mozilla in 2004 and was already involved with the organization when Firefox 1.0 came out. He held his previous position of marketing chief with the release of Firefox for Android and Firefox OS. In June 2013, Beard left for investment firm Greylock Partners, only to return. “Welcome back, Chris,” Mozilla said.