Mozilla, the organisation behind the Firefox web browser and Firefox mobile OS, has announced that co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich has been appointed to the role of CEO.
Jay Sullivan, who’d been acting CEO during the search for a full-time leader, will remain with the company during the transition and will then leave to pursue new opportunities.
There’s also a new Chief Operating Officer. Li Gong, who’s already CEO of Mozilla’s subsidiary companies in China and Taiwan, is to take this revised role.
Reid Hoffman, Mozilla Board Member (and co-founder of LinkedIn), said “Mozilla speaks for the open Web, where consumers and developers alike can prosper and express themselves free from the constraints imposed by commercial, profit-driven technologies. Mozilla’s organization and Firefox products help keep the Web balanced to every individual’s interests, and not just for the highest profit. Brendan Eich, as a founder and a well-respected innovator of Web technologies, is uniquely equipped to lead Mozilla with his deep understanding of the organization’s core values and technology vision.”
[Blog post by Mozilla chair Mitchell Baker; Mozilla news release]