Mozilla Corp. Taps John Lilly for CEO Spot

Mozilla Corporation's John Lilly is movin' on up. Not to a dee-luxe apartment in the sky mind you, but to the role of CEO. After over two years as COO, Lilly is now primed to take the helm, with current CEO Mitchell Baker stepping into the role of chairman. According to Lilly's blog, the move won't be jarring to fans of Mozilla's Firefox browser, although he does plan on altering the company's current course:

I've thought an awful lot about the role of MoCo (our shorthand for the Corporation) in supporting the Mozilla mission and manifesto, as the coordination point for our work on the platform and on Firefox. . .Even so, I've come to the conclusion that the most successful case for MoCo will be when the corporation itself is sort of invisible. That is, when MoCo can support Mozilla's mission, providing economic sustainability, project coordination, and a connection to real users around the world, while getting out of the way of what our community all around the world is doing.

In addition to the title change, Lilly's focus will shift to promoting Firefox 3 and Mozilla's newer initiatives like Mozilla China. Let's just hope he has something better up his sleeve than that Firefox viral video that's been floating around.