Technologist and Innovator will Lead Mozilla’s Portfolio-Wide Efforts to Develop Trustworthy and Open Source AI

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Today Mozilla is excited to announce Raffi Krikorian – technologist, innovator and community builder – as our first-ever portfolio wide Chief Technology Officer.

Reporting to Mozilla President, Mark Surman, Raffi will be part of the team that coordinates efforts across our whole family of organizations. He will work alongside the existing bench of technical leaders including Anthony Enzor-DeMeo (GM / Firefox), Bobby Holley (CTO / Firefox), and Ryan Sipes (Thunderbird).

As AI and technology development becomes increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, Krikorian joins Mozilla at a moment of urgency and opportunity. It is a pivotal time to shape a different future – one where we build AI we can trust, use with agency, and understand – rather than accept a future defined by opacity and control. Krikorian will lead Mozilla’s efforts to develop trustworthy and open source AI, ensuring Mozilla is inventing and building technology that pushes us all in the right direction.

“We need to make sure AI and the internet belong to all of us, not just a few big companies,” said Mark Surman, President of Mozilla. “Raffi is the right person to lead that charge – creative, innovative and passionate about responsible technology. He puts wind in our sails, accelerating Mozilla’s mission of building technology based on the values in our Manifesto.”

Krikorian brings a record of impact across sectors to Mozilla, with roles spanning tech, politics, media and philanthropy. Raffi joins us from having been the CTO at Emerson Collective, where he led efforts to bring technologists into sectors like education, the environment, immigration, and economic mobility — and to help people in those sectors see themselves as technologists. He also hosted the “Technically Optimistic” podcast and Substack, exploring technology’s impact on society.

Prior to that, he was the first CTO of the US’s Democratic National Committee, where he used data, technology, and digital security to support the election processes of Democratic candidates up and down the ballot; Director of Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center, where he led the development and rollout of the first passenger-carrying self-driving car fleet; and Vice President of Platform Engineering at Twitter, where he managed and built Twitter’s global infrastructure.

Krikorian has served on the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors since 2023, on Mozilla.ai‘s Board since 2024, and on the Mozilla.org Board since its inception.

“We don’t just need critiques on how AI is being built – we need real, working alternatives,” said Krikorian. “Mozilla is one of the few places that can actually do that. It’s built for this moment. I’m excited to join the team and help shape technology that reflects values we care about — transparency, openness, participation, and trust.”

About Mozilla

Mozilla is a global nonprofit backed technology company that does everything from making Firefox to advocating for a more open, equitable internet. Our mission is to ensure the internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. We have been pioneering stakeholder capitalism in tech for the past 25 years. Our next quarter century will be about continuing to do more, from helping build responsible tech products to growing the community, thanks to new talent that truly cares about making the internet better.

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