The open source advocacy group and creator of the Firefox browser, Mozilla, has appointed former marketing man Chris Beard as interim chief executive after a newly-promoted boss was forced to resign over his controversial donation to an anti-gay marriage campaign.
Brendan Eich was promoted to the top job from chief technology officer and had a long history with Mozilla dating back to before its formation from Netscape, having worked on the Navigator browser in the 90s and creating JavaScript in a marathon, ten-day programming session in 1995.
But controversy erupted over a $1,000 donation he made in 2008 to support California's Proposition 8, which opposed gay marriage. The donation was listed in a public database with Mozilla appearing next to Eich's name as his employer.
Despite a blog post by Eich in which he said he wanted to "express my sorrow at having caused pain" and promised an "active commitment to equality" at Mozilla, employees were unconvinced. Chris McAvoy, who leads Mozilla's Open Badges project, took to Twitter to call for the new chief executive to stand down and said that he had been "disapointed" by his promotion. The tweet was soon echoed by other Mozilla staff.
Independent developer Hampton Catlin also wrote a blog post announcing that the company founded by him and his husband would no longer support Mozilla: "As a gay couple who were unable to get married in California until recently, we morally cannot support a Foundation that would not only leave someone with hateful views in power, but will give them a promotion and put them in charge of the entire organization.
"By the very bones in our body, we cannot dare use our creativity, experience, knowledge, and passion to further the career of a man who has to this day not apologized for his support. I can't spend hours and days and years polishing, building, and upgrading applications that make him richer than he is."
In a blog post last night Mozilla's executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker said that the company had found itself in the midst of an "unexpected leadership transition" and that there was "no better person to lead us" than Chris Beard. She also added that he was a "strong candidate" for the permanent chief executive position.
"Chris has been a Mozillian longer than most. He's been actively involved with Mozilla since before we shipped Firefox 1.0, he's guided and directed many of our innovative projects, and his vision and sense of Mozilla is equal to anyone's. I have relied on his judgement and advice for nearly a decade," she said.
"We intend to use recent events as a catalyst to develop and expand Mozilla's leadership. Appointing Chris as our interim CEO is a first step in this process. Next steps include a long-term plan for the CEO role, adding board members who can help Mozilla succeed and continuing our efforts to actively support each Mozillian to reach his or her full potential as a leader."
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