December 1st, 2016

This post was originally posted on the Mozilla.org website.

Today, we are very pleased to announce the latest addition to the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors – Julie Hanna. Julie is the Executive Chairman for Kiva and a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship and we couldn’t be more excited to have her joining our Board.

Throughout this year, we have been focused on board development for both the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation boards of directors. We envisioned a diverse group who embodied the same values and mission that Mozilla stands for. We want each person to contribute a unique point of view. After extensive conversations, it was clear to the Mozilla Corporation leadership team that Julie brings exactly the type of perspective and approach that we seek.

Born in Egypt, Julie has lived in various countries including Jordan and Lebanon before finally immigrating to the United States. Julie graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a B.S. in Computer Science. She currently serves as Executive Chairman at Kiva, a peer-peer lending pioneer and the world’s largest crowdlending marketplace for underserved entrepreneurs. During her tenure, Kiva has scaled its reach to 190+ countries and facilitated nearly $1 billion dollars in loans to 2 million people with a 97% repayment rate. U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Julie as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. In that capacity, her signature initiative has delivered over $100M in capital to nearly 300,000 women and young entrepreneurs across 86 countries.

Julie is known as a serial entrepreneur with a focus on open source. She was a founder or founding executive at several innovative technology companies directly relevant to Mozilla’s world in browsers and open source. These include Scalix, a pioneering open source email/collaboration platform and developer of the most advanced AJAX application of its time, the first enterprise portal provider 2Bridge Software, and Portola Systems, which was acquired by Netscape Communications and become Netscape Mail.

She has also built a wealth of experience as an active investor and advisor to high-growth technology companies, including sharing economy pioneer Lyft, Lending Club and online retail innovator Bonobos. Julie also serves as an advisor to Idealab, Bill Gross’ highly regarded incubator which has launched dozens of IPO-destined companies.

Please join me in welcoming Julie Hanna to the Mozilla Board of Directors.

Mitchell

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Twitter: @JulesHanna

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