Mozilla will be without half its board after three directors quit in the wake of Brendan Eich’s appointment as the new CEO. Last week, employees turned to social media to voice unhappiness that the company had appointed Eich, who has donated to groups opposing gay marriage. According to the Wall Street Journal, the depth of feeling against Eich has seen three board members step down over Eich’s appointment last week.
Mozilla named a new chief executive this week to lead the non-profit Web organization as it tries to keep its Firefox browser relevant in the mobile age. The appointment has proved controversial in more ways than one. Three Mozilla board members resigned over the choice of Brendan Eich, a Mozilla co-founder, as the new CEO. Gary Kovacs, a former Mozilla CEO who runs online security company AVG Technologies; John Lilly, another former Mozilla CEO now a partner at venture-capital firm Greylock Partners; and Ellen Siminoff, CEO of online education startup Shmoop, left the board last week. The departures leave three people on the Mozilla board: co-founder Mitchell Baker; Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, and Katharina Borchert, chief executive of German news site Spiegel Online.
