Mozilla names VP of Mobile Andreas Gal as new CTO

Gal takes over position vacated by Brendan Eich when he became CEO in March

Brendan Eich has once again been replaced, though this time it was the position he held before his ill-fated reign as CEO of Mozilla.

Eich had been the company's chief technology officer, and when he took his place at the top of the company that position remained unfilled. That is, until now.

Mozilla has hired Andreas Gal, as its new CTO, it was revealed in a blog post from interim CEO Chris Beard on Friday. 

Gal has spent six years at Mozilla, and has "played key roles in virtually all of our major technology initiatives, including Firefox OS, Rust, Servo, pdf.js and Shumway." He started out as Director of Research and later became Vice President of Mobile and Research. 

In a separate post on his personal blog, Gal revealed that he originally only meant to spend three months at the company, but "we quickly realized that we could rapidly bring this new technology to market.”

Calling his work on TraceMonkey, which adds native code compilation to Mozilla's JavaScript engine "eye opening," and made him realize that "through our products that are used by hundreds of millions of users, we can bring new technology to the Web at an unprecedented pace, changing the way people use and experience the Web."

He also espoused his philosophy about how he views the Web.

"For me, the open Web is a unique ecosystem because no one controls or owns it. No single browser vendor, not even Mozilla, controls the Web. We merely contribute to it. Every browser vendor can prototype new technologies for the Web," he wrote.

"Once Mozilla led the way with Firefox, market pressures and open standards quickly forced competitors to implement successful technology as well. The result has been an unprecedented pace of innovation that has already displaced competing proprietary technology ecosystems on the desktop.”

In his new position, Gal will be responsible for leading technical decision making, representing Mozilla externally on technology, and managing its R&D programs. In addition, he will also continue to serve as VP Mobile "as we continue to focus our efforts on delivering and scaling Firefox OS,” Beard said.

Gal is, of course, the second big position recently filled by Mozilla, after the company named Beard as its interim CEO as it seeks a permanent replacement for former CEO Eich, who was forced to resign after only two weeks on the job once it was revealed that he had donated $1,000 to the anti-gay marriage Prop 8 campaign.

(Image source: andregarzia.com)