Mitchell Baker
Encyclopedia
Winifred Mitchell Baker, better known simply as Mitchell Baker is the Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation
and Chairperson and former Chief Executive Officer
of the Mozilla Corporation
, a subsidiary
of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source
Mozilla
Internet
applications, including the Mozilla Firefox
web browser
and the Mozilla Thunderbird
email client.
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
magazine included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and she has been affectionately given the title of "Chief Lizard Wrangler" at the Mozilla Corporation.
in Asian studies
from 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. 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.
, 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 Chief Lizard Wrangler (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. Despite this, she continued to serve as the Chief Lizard Wrangler of mozilla.org on a volunteer basis.
, helping to guide the group's community relations and taking a seat on OSAF's Board of Directors. From the outset, she also had part of her time assigned to working on mozilla.org issues. However, the division of her hours gradually became more and more weighted towards her Mozilla work at the expense of her OSAF duties, leading to her decision to return to Mozilla full time in January 2005. She retained her seat on OSAF's board.
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.
When the Mozilla Corporation was launched as a tax
able 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, as well as 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. The reasons cited for this change was Mozilla's rapid growth, which made it difficult for executives to continue to wear many hats.
Public records indicate she received $500,000 USD in salary and benefits for her work in her multiple roles with Mozilla in 2007.
In 2009, Mitchell Baker received the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award
for Social Impact.
As a hobby, she is a skilled trapeze
artist, "flying" two or three times a week. She can also speak conversational Mandarin Chinese.
She is known for her unique hair style, with her hair cut in a bob on the right side of her head, and very short on the left. Her hair coincidentally bears a resemblance to the Firefox logo.
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
and Chairperson and former Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of the Mozilla Corporation
Mozilla Corporation
The Mozilla Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates and integrates the development of Internet-related applications such as the Mozilla Firefox and SeaMonkey Navigator web browsers and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client by a growing global community of...
, a subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
Mozilla
Mozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....
Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
applications, including the Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
and the Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
email client.
Baker was trained as a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. She coordinates business and policy issues and sits on both the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
and the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors. In 2005, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and she has been affectionately given the title of "Chief Lizard Wrangler" at the Mozilla Corporation.
Education and early employment
Baker received an BABachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Asian studies
Asian studies
Asian studies, a term used usually in the United States for Oriental studies and is concerned with the Asian peoples, their cultures, languages, history and politics...
from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1979, achieving a Certificate of Distinction. She received her JD
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1987 and was admitted to the State Bar of California
State Bar of California
The State Bar of California is California's official bar association. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, and prescribing appropriate discipline...
in the same year. 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
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
as an Associate General Counsel
General Counsel
A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...
from November 1993 until October 1994.
Netscape Communications Corporation and mozilla.org
In November 1994, Baker was hired as one of the first employees of the legal department of Netscape Communications Corporation. Reporting directly to CEO Jim BarksdaleJim Barksdale
Jim Barksdale was the president and CEO of Netscape Communications Corporation from January 1995 until the company merged with AOL in March 1999.-Early life:...
, she jointly set up the initial department. She was responsible for intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
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
Netscape Public License
The Netscape Public License is a free software license, the license under which Netscape Communications Corporation originally released Mozilla....
and the Mozilla Public License
Mozilla Public License
The Mozilla Public License is a free and open source software license. Version 1.0 was developed by Mitchell Baker when she worked as a lawyer at Netscape Communications Corporation and version 1.1 at the Mozilla Foundation...
. In February 1999, Baker became the Chief Lizard Wrangler (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. Despite this, she continued to serve as the Chief Lizard Wrangler of mozilla.org on a volunteer basis.
Open Source Applications Foundation
In November 2002, Baker was employed by the Open Source Applications FoundationOpen Source Applications Foundation
The Open Source Applications Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 by Mitch Kapor whose purpose is to effect widespread adoption of free software/open-source software.-OSAF Mission:The mission of the OSAF is stated this way:...
, helping to guide the group's community relations and taking a seat on OSAF's Board of Directors. From the outset, she also had part of her time assigned to working on mozilla.org issues. However, the division of her hours gradually became more and more weighted towards her Mozilla work at the expense of her OSAF duties, leading to her decision to return to Mozilla full time in January 2005. She retained her seat on OSAF's board.
Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
, 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.
When the Mozilla Corporation was launched as a tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
able 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, as well as 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
John Lilly (Mozilla)
John Lilly was the Chief Executive Officer of the Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of open source Mozilla Internet applications, including the Mozilla Firefox web browser....
would take over this role. The reasons cited for this change was Mozilla's rapid growth, which made it difficult for executives to continue to wear many hats.
Public records indicate she received $500,000 USD in salary and benefits for her work in her multiple roles with Mozilla in 2007.
Awards and Recognition
Mitchell Baker was listed among the 2005 Top 100 by TIME Magazine, in the "Scientists & Thinkers" section.In 2009, Mitchell Baker received the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award
Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards
The Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards honor exceptional technical women. Three awards are presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology each year, recognizing women in the categories of Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact.-Awards:...
for Social Impact.
Personal life
Mitchell is married to Casey Dunn and has one son.As a hobby, she is a skilled trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
artist, "flying" two or three times a week. She can also speak conversational Mandarin Chinese.
She is known for her unique hair style, with her hair cut in a bob on the right side of her head, and very short on the left. Her hair coincidentally bears a resemblance to the Firefox logo.
Quote
"The average consumer does not know the difference between browser, Internet and search box."External links
- Firefox, Community and Lizard Wrangling, Mitchell Baker speaks at Stanford University
- Mitchell Baker's weblog
- About the Mozilla Foundation (includes information about Baker's role at the Mozilla FoundationMozilla FoundationThe Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
) - OSAF Mitchell Baker biography
- BBC Profile of Mitchell Baker for series Valley Girls