Mozilla’s bad week: Employees call for CEO Eich to step down, 3 board members leave

Mozilla is not having a good Friday, unlike the rest of us.

Since the announcement a few days ago of Brendan Eich’s appointment as chief executive, protests over his “anti-gay” views have been simmering, and they came to a head this morning with several employees publicly calling for Eich’s resignation.

Oh, and three Mozilla board members stepped down.

Former Mozilla chief executive Gary Kovacs, Greylock partner and also former Mozilla chief executive John Lilly, and Shmoop chief executive Ellen Siminoff left the board last week, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The remaining board members are Mozilla cofounder Mitchell Baker, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, and German news site Spiegel Online CEO Katharina Borchet.

In 2008, Eich contributed $1,000 to the push for California’s Proposition 8, which sought to ban same-sex marriage in California. Earlier this week, he posted on his personal blog that he is committed to making Mozilla “an open and inclusive community” and will work to make sure LGBT and all other employees feel welcome there.

The board members appear to have stepped down because they sought to bring in a chief executive from the outside who would have strong experience in mobile to help lead the company’s mobile operating system efforts, the Journal reported.

Update: “The three board members ended their terms last week for a variety of reasons. Two had been planning to leave for some time, one since January and one explicitly at the end of the CEO search, regardless of the person selected,” a Mozilla spokesperson wrote to VentureBeat following publication to counter the reasoning reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Mozilla has been working quite hard on its mobile efforts, recently announcing a $25 phone for emerging markets as well as advancements in bringing gaming to the browser, which opens new doors for mobile gaming.