From CNET: Chris Beard grabbed hold of Mozilla's reins during a rough time.
In the spring of 2014, Mozilla was trying to take on the two mobile software superpowers, Google's Android and Apple's iOS, with its own Firefox OS. At the same time, its Firefox browser for PCs was losing users to Google's Chrome browser. If that wasn't hard enough, the nonprofit organization was rocked to its roots when co-founder Brendan Eich quit the CEO job after a highly visible gay-marriage controversy.
So Beard, an early Mozilla executive, was tapped to help pull the organization through the crisis.
A quiet executive who can pause for an uncomfortably long time as he carefully considers how he'll answer a question, Beard, 44, doesn't hesitate in showing his passion for Mozilla's software and mission. He first joined Mozilla in 2004 when the browser team had just 10 employees, and he led Firefox marketing and other projects for years. He left in 2013 for a stint as entrepreneur-in-residence at venture capital firm Greylock Partners. After Mozilla's management cataclysm, he left a new startup to return to Mozilla's Mountain View, California, headquarters. His interim CEO appointment soon became permanent. Beard says he knew he had to take on the job.
"I saw a real risk in Mozilla not surviving," Beard said in an exclusive interview. "I also knew how important Mozilla is in the world. I knew how much potential there was."
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