Mozilla CEO resigns because of Prop 8 donation in 2008

[Barrister]

Brendan Eich, Mozilla CEO, resigns after protests over anti-gay marriage stance
'Under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader', co-founder says
The Associated Press Posted: Apr 03, 2014 10:01 PM ET Last Updated: Apr 04, 2014 1:16 PM ET

Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich is stepping down as CEO and leaving the company following protests over his support of a gay marriage ban in California.

The nonprofit that makes the Firefox browser infuriated many employees and users last week by naming Eich head of the Mountain View, Calif.-based organization.

At issue was Eich's $1,000 donation in 2008 to the campaign to pass California's Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that outlawed same-sex marriages. The ban was overturned last year when the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a lower-court ruling striking down the ballot measure.

Eich's contribution had drawn negative attention in the past but took on more weight when he was named CEO. Mozilla employees and users criticized the move on Twitter and elsewhere online. Earlier this week, dating website OKCupid replaced its usual homepage for users logging in with Firefox with a note suggesting they not use Mozilla's software to access the site.

An OKCupid spokesman responded Friday to the news of Eich stepping down, saying the website never sought anyone's resignation.

"We are pleased that OkCupid's boycott has brought tremendous awareness to the critical matter of equal rights for all individuals and partnerships; today's decision reaffirms Mozilla's commitment to that cause," the spokesman said in an email to CBC.

"We are satisfied that Mozilla will be taking a number of further affirmative steps to support the equality of all relationships."

The departure raises questions about how far corporate leaders are allowed to go in expressing their political views.

"CEOs often use their station to push for certain viewpoints and get some muscle for those viewpoints," said UCLA management professor Samuel Culbert. "But if you are going to play the game you have to think of both sides."

Company leaders have to be conscious of what impact their own views may have on the success of their organization, Culbert argues. While some leaders, such as Starbucks Corp. head Howard Schultz, have been outspoken in their political positions, it is often in a vein that is line with the ethos of his company. Culbert said that taking a position that is divisive can both drive away customers and hurt employee morale.

The onus is also on the corporation and its board to assess whether anything that a candidate has done or said in the past will adversely affect the company's reputation, said Microsoft Corp. Chairman John Thompson, who led a five-month search that culminated in Microsoft hiring Satya Nadella as its new CEO in February.

"When you run a public company or any visible organization, what you think and what you say is always going to affect the company," said Thompson, "You have to be mindful of how things you do and say will affect your customers, your employees and your investors."

'I cannot be an effective leader'

Eich said in a statement Thursday that Mozilla's mission is "bigger than any one of us, and under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader."

His resignation represents an about-face from his confident and sometimes defiant remarks in an interview published earlier this week by the technology news service Cnet. Insisting that he was best choice to be CEO, Eich told Cnet that it would send the wrong message if he were to resign or apologize for his support of Prop. 8.

"I don't think it's good for my integrity or Mozilla's integrity to be pressured into changing a position," Eich said. "If Mozilla became more exclusive and required more litmus tests, I think that would be a mistake that would lead to a much smaller Mozilla, a much more fragmented Mozilla."

At another point, Eich said that attacks on his beliefs represented a threat to Mozilla's survival. "If Mozilla cannot continue to operate according to its principles of inclusiveness, where you can work on the mission no matter what your background or other beliefs, I think we'll probably fail," he said.

Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker apologized for the company's actions in an open letter online Thursday, saying that Eich is stepping down for the company's sake.

"We didn't act like you'd expect Mozilla to act. We didn't move fast enough to engage with people once the controversy started. We're sorry. We must do better," Baker wrote.

She said that Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech and that "figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard."

Mozilla is still discussing what is next for its leadership.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/brendan-eich-mozilla-ceo-resigns-after-protests-over-anti-gay-marriage-stance-1.2597765

There are lots of stories out there on this one, this is one I found quickly.

I find this one kind of troubling.  The protests aren't over anything Eich is doing now or in the recent past - it was for financially supporting an anti-gay-marriage proposition from 6 years ago.  It's not enough that gay marriage proponents in California won, but apparently anyone who once felt the opposite way must be shamed into renouncing their prior position.

What say you Languish?

[Grey Fox]

OkCupid has lot of pull.

[Neil]

See, this is why every gay is a danger to the society we live in, and why our forefather were right to persecute them as they did.

[alfred russel]

2 things:

1) he is the leader of an organization that includes gay people. It has to be rather demotivating for them to have a leader that advocated against them.
2) he is the face of a organization to the public. Mozilla apparently didn't want to have his advocacy against gay marriage as a subtext in unrelated stories. Which makes sense. Mozilla products happen to be very easy to substitute for, making them vunerable to bad publicity and boycotts.

[Admiral Yi]

I say people are free to spend their money any way they want, and if that means that impacts Mozilla's finances, so be it.

[Capetan Mihali]

As we've learned from the Supreme Court, money is speech.   So I don't think a business leader who goes and publicly "speaks" out in favor of denying marriage rights to same-sex couples should be shielded from the blowback, whether at the time or when people later "hear" his "speech."

[alfred russel]

I say people are free to spend their money any way they want, and if that means that impacts Mozilla's finances, so be it.

Mozilla owners are free to hire who they want as CEO.

Surely there are political causes that financial support of which would disqualify someone from becoming a CEO.

[Admiral Yi]

Mozilla owners are free to hire who they want as CEO.

Obviously.

[The Brain]

Anything and everything can impact the choice of CEO. I see no problem here.

[alfred russel]

Mozilla owners are free to hire who they want as CEO.

Obviously.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, we are in disagreement.

[The Brain]

Mozilla owners are free to hire who they want as CEO.

Obviously.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, we are in disagreement.

True.

[Admiral Yi]

Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, we are in disagreement.

I don't see how.  Mozilla's owners are free to choose any CEO they want.  If they think this dude's stance on gay marriage will impact their shareholder value, they're free to let him go.

Or for any other reason for that matter, subject to contractual constraints.

[alfred russel]

Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, we are in disagreement.

I don't see how.  Mozilla's owners are free to choose any CEO they want.  If they think this dude's stance on gay marriage will impact their shareholder value, they're free to let him go.

Or for any other reason for that matter, subject to contractual constraints.

I was misunderstanding your post then.

[KRonn]

I find this one kind of troubling.  The protests aren't over anything Eich is doing now or in the recent past - it was for financially supporting an anti-gay-marriage proposition from 6 years ago.  It's not enough that gay marriage proponents in California won, but apparently anyone who once felt the opposite way must be shamed into renouncing their prior position.

What say you Languish?

I also find it kind of troubling. I don't agree with him but he just had the same view as Pres Obama did just a few years ago. He just had a different opinion on what marriage is. That doesn't make the guy some kind of demon, unless he was doing and saying a lot worse things.  Millions of Californians had the same view.

I also find it troubling that a Cal law allows people who donate to something to be found out, making them subject to harassment.

This kind of thing, the law especially, stifles people's willingness to take part in the political process. Who wants to deal with this stuff for supporting a point of view? And I have to think it makes a lot of people angry seeing this kind of harassment of the guy.

[Valmy]

I say people are free to spend their money any way they want, and if that means that impacts Mozilla's finances, so be it.

True but he didn't get arrested so I am not sure what his personal freedom has to do with it.

I find this one kind of troubling.  The protests aren't over anything Eich is doing now or in the recent past - it was for financially supporting an anti-gay-marriage proposition from 6 years ago.  It's not enough that gay marriage proponents in California won, but apparently anyone who once felt the opposite way must be shamed into renouncing their prior position.

That is indeed how things work these days in the culture wars.  It is all about labeling, if you get labeled a homophobe and it sticks watch out.  Everybody who is labeled certain things is evil.