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Mitchell Baker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Mitchel Bakker.

Mitchell Baker
Headshot of Baker smiling
Baker in 2009
Born
Winifred Mitchell Baker

Berkeley, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley, (BA, JD)
Title
SpouseCasey Dunn
Children1
Signature

Winifred Mitchell Baker is the Chairwoman of the Mozilla Foundation and former CEO of the Mozilla Corporation,[1] a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source Mozilla Internet applications, including the Mozilla Firefox web browser. She left the CEO role in February 2024.[2]

Baker was trained as a lawyer. She coordinates business and policy issues and sits on both the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors and the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors. In 2005, Time included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[3][4]

Education and early employment

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Baker received a BA in Chinese studies[5] at the University of California, Berkeley in 1979, achieving a Certificate of Distinction. She received her JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley in 1987 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in the same year.[6][7] From January 1990 until October 1993, she worked as a Corporate and Intellectual Property Associate at Fenwick & West LLP, a law practice that specialises in providing legal services to high technology companies. She then worked for Sun Microsystems as an Associate General Counsel from November 1993 until October 1994.[citation needed]

Netscape Communications Corporation and mozilla.org

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In November 1994, Baker was hired as one of the first employees of the legal department of Netscape Communications Corporation.[8] Reporting directly to CEO Jim Barksdale, she jointly set up the initial department. She was responsible for intellectual property protection and legal issues relating to product development, reporting to the General Counsel. She also created and managed the Technology Group of the Legal Department. She was involved with the Mozilla project from the outset, writing both the Netscape Public License and the Mozilla Public License. In February 1999, Baker became the general manager of mozilla.org, the division of Netscape that coordinated the Mozilla open source project. In 2001, she was fired during a round of layoffs at America Online, by then the parent of Netscape.[9] Despite this, she continued to serve as general manager of mozilla.org on a volunteer basis.[10]

In November 2002, Baker was employed by the Open Source Applications Foundation, helping to guide the group's community relations and taking a seat on OSAF's Board of Directors.[11]

Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation

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A profile photo of Baker
Baker in 2008
Baker telling the story of Mozilla's founding in 2012

Baker was instrumental in the creation of the Mozilla Foundation, an independent non-profit that was launched on July 15, 2003, as America Online shut down the Netscape browser division and drastically scaled back its involvement with the Mozilla project. Baker became the President of the Mozilla Foundation and was appointed to the five-person Board of Directors.[3]

When the Mozilla Corporation was launched as a taxable subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation on August 3, 2005, Baker was named the CEO of the new entity. In addition, she joined the Mozilla Corporation's Board of Directors, though she also kept her seat on the Mozilla Foundation's board and her role as Chairperson.

On January 8, 2008, Mozilla announced that Baker, while retaining her role as Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation, would no longer serve as CEO of the Corporation, and that MoCo's Chief Operating Officer John Lilly would take over this role.[12] The reasons cited for this change was Mozilla's rapid growth, which made it difficult for executives to continue to take on many different roles.[13] In April 2020 she was named CEO of Mozilla Corporation again.[14]

On February 8, 2024, Mozilla announced that Baker would be stepping down as CEO to "focus on AI and internet safety"[2] as chair of the Mozilla Foundation.

Awards and recognition

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Mitchell Baker was listed among the 2005 Top 100 by Time, in the "Scientists & Thinkers" section.[15]

In 2009, Baker received the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Leadership.[16][17]

In 2012, Baker was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.[18]

Personal life

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Baker's husband is Casey Dunn.[7] She has one son.

References

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  1. ^ "Mozilla Leadership". Mozilla. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Mozilla names new CEO as it pivots to data privacy". Fortune. Retrieved February 8, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Andreessen, Marc (April 18, 2005). "100 Most Influential People in the World: Scientists & Thinkers". Time Magazine. Archived from the original on January 21, 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  4. ^ "The 25 Most Influential People on the Web". Business Week. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  5. ^ Mallory, Taylor (May 20, 2013). "Mitchell Baker - Chairperson & Former CEO, Mozilla Corporation & Creator of Mozilla Firefox". Little Pink Book. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  6. ^ "Web 2.0 Expo: Mitchell Baker". Web 2.0 Expo. April 24, 2008. Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  7. ^ a b Baker, Mitchell (January 21, 2009). "7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me". Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  8. ^ "mozilla.org Staff Members". Archived from the original on January 29, 2009. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  9. ^ Schofield, Jack (February 28, 2008). "Wrangling the web into an open future". The Guardian. London. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  10. ^ Severance, Charles. "Mitchell Baker: The Mozilla Foundation". Coursera. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
  11. ^ "Mitchell Baker Joins OSAF Staff". mozillaZine. November 18, 2002. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  12. ^ Schofield, Jack (April 6, 2008). "Firefox's Mitchell Baker -- the anniversary interview in full". The Guardian. London. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  13. ^ Thomson, Iain (January 8, 2008). "Mitchell Baker steps down as Mozilla appoints new boss". IT News. Archived from the original on February 13, 2009. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
  14. ^ "Mitchell Baker Named CEO of Mozilla". blog.mozilla.org. April 8, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  15. ^ Andreessen, Marc (April 18, 2005). "Scientists and Thinkers: Mitchell Baker". TIME. Archived from the original on June 18, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  16. ^ "Top Women in Tech – Backstage at Anita Borg Institute Vision Awards". ValleyZen. May 8, 2009. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  17. ^ "Winifred Mitchell Baker - Anita Borg Institute". Anitaborg.org. October 1, 2009. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  18. ^ "2012 Inductees". Internet Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on December 13, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
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New title CEO of Mozilla Corporation
August 3, 2005 – 2008 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Interim CEO of Mozilla Corporation
December 2019 – February 2024 		Incumbent
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