Mozilla promotes interim CEO Chris Beard to permanent status

By Konrad Krawczyk Updated July 28, 2014

mozilla ceo open letter windows 10 browser defaults chris beard — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Mozilla, the firm that runs the popular Firefox Web browser, announced that it is removing the interim tag from Chris Beard’s CEO title, elevating him to a permanent position. Mozilla revealed the news via this official blog post.

“Chris has a keen sense of where Mozilla has been – and where we’re headed,” Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s Executive Chairwoman said. “He has unique experience connecting with every constituency that touches our products, including consumers, partners and community members. There’s simply no better person to lead Mozilla as we extend our impact from Firefox on the desktop to the worlds of mobile devices and services.”

Chris Beard originally assumed the role of interim CEO back in April after Brendan Eich, Mozilla’s former CEO, resigned. Eich stepped down after it was revealed that he supported Proposition 8 in California back in 2008. Prop 8, as it was commonly called, only recognized marriage between a man and a woman as the only legal form of marriage, making gay marriage illegal.

Now that the role of CEO has been officially settled for Mozilla, it will be interesting to see what changes it will make to Firefox with Beard firmly in the driver’s seat. The firm will likely have to make significant changes to put the desktop browser’s market share on an upward trajectory.

According to Net Marketshare, Firefox’s June share was 15.54 percent. That fell from May, when it was at 16.81 percent. Meanwhile, it trails Internet Explorer and Google Chrome by wide margins, whose share numbers as of last month are 58.38 percent and 19.34 percent, respectively.

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Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

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