Mozilla Corp., the nonprofit group behind the open-source Firefox browser, today named Chairwoman Mitchell Baker its new chief executive officer.

She replaces former CEO Chris Beard, who stepped down at the end of last year. The appointment of Baker (pictured) is a logical choice for Mozilla given that she has been with the organization since 2003.

In a blog post, she said the company faces some big challenges ahead, including navigating the current economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and Firefox’s battle for market share with other browsers such as Google Chrome.

“It’s a time of challenge on many levels, there’s no question about that. Mozilla’s flagship product remains excellent, but the competition is stiff,” Baker wrote. “The increasing vertical integration of internet experience remains a deep challenge. It’s also a time of need, and of opportunity. Increasingly, numbers of people recognize that the internet needs attention.”

In a second blog post, Mozilla’s board of directors said that Baker, who has served as interim CEO since December, had a unique combination of skills and experience that make her the right person to lead the company.

“Mitchell’s deep understanding of Mozilla’s existing businesses gives her the ability to provide direction and support to drive this important work forward,” the directors wrote. “And her leadership style grounded in openness and honesty is helping the organization navigate through the uncertainty that COVID-19 has created for Mozillians at work and at home.”

Mozilla will certainly need strong leadership, as its flagship internet browser has been in troubled waters for some time, due to intense competition from rivals such as Apple Inc. and Google LLC. It was once the most popular desktop browser in the world but has seen its market share fall to just 8.5%, according to the most recent data from NetApplications.

The decline of Firefox has hit Mozilla’s revenue hard. Earlier this year, it was forced to layoff about 70 staff members to cut costs.

In response to its declining user base, Mozilla has tried to prioritize new features such as password management, file sharing and private network connections. For example, in February it announced new privacy features that make it more difficult for internet service providers to track their users. And in April, it updated its search bar to improve user productivity.

“For some reason, the innovation fire has slowed down at Mozilla,” said Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller. “With recent layoffs it is getting harder for Mozilla to succeed, but then again it often comes down to individual brilliance and not the quantity of development resources for a technical product like a browser.”

Mueller said he was more concerned by the length of time it took Mozilla to announce Mitchell as its new CEO.

“It looks like the board has not been able to attract the talent for the CEO job it was hoping too after Beard stepped down,” he said. “Still, let’s hope Mitchell can help put the ‘Fire’ back in Firefox. It would be good to see more competition and innovation in the browser market.”

Photo: Hubert Figuière/Flickr