Brendan Eich
Brendan Eich
Brendan Eich (born July 4, 1961) is an American computer programmer and technology executive. He is best known as the creator of the JavaScript programming language and as a co‑founder of the Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla Corporation. Eich served as the chief technology officer (CTO) of Mozilla Corporation and later as its chief executive officer (CEO) for a brief period in 2014. He subsequently co‑founded the Brave Software company, which develops the privacy‑focused Brave web browser.
Eich's early career included work at Silicon Graphics and Netscape Communications Corporation. While at Netscape in 1995, he created the first version of JavaScript in just ten days. The language was originally named Mocha, then LiveScript, and finally JavaScript. It became a core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS.
Career
After Netscape was acquired by AOL, Eich helped launch the open‑source Mozilla project in 1998. He led the development of the Gecko layout engine and served as the first chief architect of the Mozilla Suite. In 2005, he joined the Mozilla Corporation as its CTO, and in 2014 he became CEO. His tenure as CEO lasted only 11 days due to controversy over his past political donations.
In 2015, Eich co‑founded Brave Software with Brian Bondy. Brave is a Chromium‑based browser that blocks trackers and ads by default and introduces a cryptocurrency‑based ecosystem for micro‑payments. Eich serves as CEO of Brave and also helped create the Basic Attention Token (BAT).
Controversies
In 2008, Eich made a US$1,000 donation to the campaign supporting California Proposition 8, which sought to ban same‑sex marriage. The donation became widely known in 2012, and when Eich was appointed Mozilla CEO in 2014, it sparked internal and external backlash. Several Mozilla employees resigned, and some users boycotted Firefox. Eich resigned as CEO on April 3, 2014, but remained on the Mozilla board until he left the organization entirely in 2015.
Personal life
Eich is married to Eleanor, an attorney, and they have two children. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana‑Champaign and a master's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.