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Chairwoman and CEO From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
Mitchell Baker | |
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Baker in 2009 | |
| Born | Winifred Mitchell Baker Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley, (BA, JD) |
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| Spouse | Casey Dunn |
| Children | 1 |
| Signature | |
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Baker coordinates business and policy issues and sits on 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]
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 specializing 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]
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, then-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]
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 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]
In 2018, Baker received $2,458,350 in compensation from Mozilla.[15] In 2020, after returning to the position of CEO, Baker's salary was more than $3 million. In 2021, her salary rose again to more than $5 million,[16] and again to nearly $7 million in 2022.[17] In August 2020, the Mozilla Corporation laid off approximately 250 employees due to shrinking revenues after laying off roughly 70 employees in January 2020. Baker stated this was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite revenue rising to record highs in 2019, and market share shrinking.[18][further explanation needed]
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.
Mitchell Baker was listed among the 2005 Top 100 by Time, in the "Scientists & Thinkers" section.[19]
In 2009, Baker received the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Leadership.[20][21]
In 2012, Baker was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.[22]
Baker's husband is Casey Dunn.[7] She has one son.
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