April 3, 2014

Brendan Eich resigns as Mozilla CEO

Brendan Eich resigned as MozillaThe organization behind Firefox — advocates open web standards and internet privacy. CEO on April 3, 2014 after only days in the role — controversy over a political donation.

What it was for

Brendan EichEich created JavaScript in ten days in 1995 and later co-founded Brave. His brief MozillaThe organization behind Firefox — advocates open web standards and internet privacy. tenure and exit showed how founder-legends intersect with modern corporate governance and community politics.

People

  • Brendan Eichceo

Companies

  • Mozilla

Why it's here

Eich embodies JavaScript's creation and a dramatic open-source leadership moment.

Why it mattered

It raised questions about separating creators' personal views from their technical legacy.

What it solved

MozillaThe organization behind Firefox — advocates open web standards and internet privacy. faced community trust crisis immediately after appointing a co-founder as CEO.

Media

  • Brendan Eich
    ImageBrendan Eich

    Darcy Padilla, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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