The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion.^[1] When the group is not in session, the officer's duties often include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world and its spokesperson.

Terminology[link]

Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include presiding officer, president, moderator, chair, and convenor.^[2][3][4] The chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker.^[5][6] Though chairwoman is sometimes used as a female counterpart to chairman, the terms chair and chairperson are sometimes used to avoid gendered titles altogether.^[7][8] The National Association of Parliamentarians does not approve using "chairperson".^[9] In the United States, the presiding officer of the "lower" house of a legislative body, such as the House of Representatives, is frequently titled the Speaker, while the "upper" house, such as the Senate, is commonly chaired by a President.

A vice-chairman (or deputy chairman), subordinate to the chairman, is sometimes chosen to assist the chairman^[10] and to serve as chairman in the absence of the chairman, or when a motion involving the chairman is being discussed.^[1] In the absence of the chairman and vice chairman, groups sometimes elect a chairman pro tempore to fill the role for a single meeting.^[1]

The word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be “in the chair”, the person is also referred to as “the chair.” Parliamentary procedure requires that members address the “chair” rather than the “chairman,” or by using a person's name. This is one of many customs intended to maintain the presiding officer's impartiality and insuring an objective and impersonal approach.^[1]

Riddick's Rules of Procedure, among others, claim an etymology of chairman as derived from the Latin manus, or "hand", and use this to claim gender-neutrality for the word. Some etymologists consider this to be incorrect,^[11] and many dictionaries claim that the word is from "chair" (a seat or office of authority) and "man", a person.^[7][12][13]

Public corporations[link]

Among public corporations, there are generally two types of chairmen, executive and non-executive. The executive chairman also serves as an executive of the company, usually the chief executive officer (CEO), although it can exist as a separate position. The non-executive chairman holds no executive position with the company, and is usually an outsider with no other current or previous ties to it.

The non-executive Chairman's duties are typically limited to matters directly related to the board, such as:^[14]

• Chairing the meetings of the board.
• Organizing and coordinating the board's activities, such as by setting its annual agenda.
• Reviewing and evaluating the performance of the CEO and the other board members.

Many U.S. companies have an executive chairman, and this method of organization is sometimes called the American model. Having a non-executive chair is common in the United Kingdom and Canada, and is sometimes called the British model. Expert opinion is rather evenly divided over which is the preferable model overall.^[15]

Companies with both an executive chairman and a CEO include Ford,^[16] HSBC,^[17] Google,^[18] and HP.^[19]

See also[link]

Look up chair, chairman, chairwoman, chairperson, or preside in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Board of Directors
• European company law
• Executive director
• German company law
• Non-executive director
• Parliamentary procedure in the corporate world
• UK company law
• US corporate law

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Alice Sturgis; American Institute of Parliamentarians (2001). "19 Officers: The President ...". The standard code of parliamentary procedure (Fourth ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 162–165. ISBN 978-0-07-136513-0 

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
Minister of Home Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 May 2009
President	Jacob Zuma
Preceded by	Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 14 June 1999 – 9 May 2009
President	Thabo Mbeki Kgalema Motlanthe
Preceded by	Alfred Nzo
Succeeded by	Maite Nkoana-Mashabane (International Relations and Cooperation)
Minister of Health
In office 10 May 1994 – 14 June 1999
President	Nelson Mandela
Preceded by	Rina Venter
Succeeded by	Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Personal details
Born	(1949-01-27) 27 January 1949 (age 63) Natal, South Africa
Political party	African National Congress
Alma mater	University of Zululand University of Natal University of Bristol University of Liverpool

Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma (born 27 January 1949) is a South African politician and was an anti-apartheid activist. She was South Africa's Minister of Health from 1994 to 1999, under President Nelson Mandela, then Minister of Foreign Affairs from 17 June 1999 to 10 May 2009, under Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Molanthe. She was moved to the position of Minister of Home Affairs in the Cabinet of President Jacob Zuma, her ex-husband, on 10 May 2009.

Early years[link]

Dlamini-Zuma, a Zulu, was born in Natal, the eldest of eight children. She completed high school at the Amanzimtoti Training College in 1967. In 1971, she started her studies in Zoology and Botany at the University of Zululand, from where she obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Science (BSc). She subsequently started her medical studies at the University of Natal.

ANC[link]

During her studies in the early 1970s, Dlamini-Zuma became an active underground member of the (then banned) African National Congress (ANC). At the same time, she was also a member of the South African Students Organisation and was elected as its deputy president in 1976.

During the same year Dlamini-Zuma fled into exile; she completed her medical studies at the University of Bristol in 1978. She subsequently worked as a doctor at the Mbabane Government Hospital in Swaziland, where she met her future husband, current ANC party president Jacob Zuma. In 1985 she returned to the United Kingdom in order to complete a diploma in tropical child health from Liverpool University's School of Tropical Medicine. After receiving her diploma, she worked for the ANC Regional Health Committee before accepting the position of director of the Health and Refugee Trust, a British non-governmental organization.

Government[link]

During the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations in 1992, Dlamini-Zuma was part of the Gender Advisory Committee. After the first all-inclusive South African elections of 1994, she was appointed as Minister of Health in the cabinet of President Nelson Mandela.

During her tenure as Minister of Health she de-segregated the health system and gave poor people access to free basic healthcare. However, an AIDS education play - Sarafina II - she commissioned was criticised by the Public Protector for poor financial controls and poor commissioning procedures. Dlamini-Zuma agreed to shelve the play following the Public Protector's report. ^[1][2][3] Dlamini-Zuma was also criticised for supporting the anti-AIDS drug, Virodene, which was cheaper than other drugs but rejected by the scientific community as ineffective. ^[3][4]

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma divorced from Jacob Zuma in 1998.^[3]

Dlamini-Zuma brought forward the Tobacco Products Control Bill in 1999, which made it illegal for anyone to smoke in public places.

Following the 1999 general election, Nelson Mandela retired as President and was replaced by Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki appointed Dlamini-Zuma as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Dlamini-Zuma has been awarded honorary Doctor of Law degrees by both the University of Natal (1995) and the University of Bristol (1996).

Other offices[link]

She was offered the Deputy Presidency of South Africa by Thabo Mbeki after he fired Jacob Zuma, but declined it after talking to her children. The deputy presidency position was then offered to and accepted by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.^[5]

She has been suggested as a possible ANC candidate for the Presidency in the 2009 election and for the leadership of the party. On November 15, 2007, she said that she would be willing to accept a nomination by the ANC,^[6][7] although her spokesman said the next day that she had not entered the succession debate in the ANC.^[8]

Dlamini-Zuma has been nominated for the party's deputy presidency by four provinces aligned to President Thabo Mbeki, while the five provinces backing her ex-husband ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma prefer her as the national chairperson. ^[5] She was elected to the ANC's 80-member National Executive Committee in December 2007 in 35th place, with 1,885 votes.^[9]

On September 22, 2008, Dlamini-Zuma resigned along with 10 other ministers of the South African cabinet, the deputy president and the president. After Thabo Mbeki was ousted by the African National Congress, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was abroad and said to be filling her papers of resigning but she did not do it, she is still the Foreign Minister in Kgalema Motlanthe's cabinet.

In the Zuma cabinet she is serving as the Minister of Home Affairs. Some have viewed this as demotion but independent analysts say that with Home Affairs smeared by incompetence and laziness, a person of Dlamini-Zuma caliber will clean the department, a move that might suggest that she is a sound leader.

See also[link]

• African Century

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

Mitchell Baker
Mitchell Baker at OSCON 2005
Born	Winifred Mitchell Baker 1957[1] Oakland, California, U.S.A.
Alma mater	AB in Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law
Occupation	Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation
Spouse	Casey Dunn
Children	1

Winifred Mitchell Baker, better known simply as Mitchell Baker is the Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation and Chairperson and former Chief Executive Officer of the Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates development of the open source Mozilla Internet applications, including the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client.

Baker was trained as a lawyer. She coordinates business and policy issues and sits on both the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors and the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors. In 2005, Time magazine included her in its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world and she has been affectionately given the title of "Chief Lizard Wrangler" at the Mozilla Corporation.^[2][3]

Education and early employment[link]

Baker received an BA in Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979, achieving a Certificate of Distinction. She received her JD from the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley in 1987 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in the same year.^[4][5] From January 1990 until October 1993, she worked as a Corporate and Intellectual Property Associate at Fenwick & West LLP, a law practice that specialises in providing legal services to high technology companies. She then worked for Sun Microsystems as an Associate General Counsel from November 1993 until October 1994.^[6]

Netscape Communications Corporation and mozilla.org[link]

In November 1994, Baker was hired as one of the first employees of the legal department of Netscape Communications Corporation.^[7] Reporting directly to CEO Jim Barksdale, she jointly set up the initial department. She was responsible for intellectual property protection and legal issues relating to product development, reporting to the General Counsel. She also created and managed the Technology Group of the Legal Department. She was involved with the Mozilla project from the outset, writing both the Netscape Public License and the Mozilla Public License. In February 1999, Baker became the Chief Lizard Wrangler (general manager) of mozilla.org, the division of Netscape that coordinated the Mozilla open source project. In 2001, she was fired during a round of layoffs at America Online, by then the parent of Netscape.^[8] Despite this, she continued to serve as the Chief Lizard Wrangler of mozilla.org on a volunteer basis.

Open Source Applications Foundation[link]

In November 2002, Baker was employed by the Open Source Applications Foundation, helping to guide the group's community relations and taking a seat on OSAF's Board of Directors.^[9] From the outset, she also had part of her time assigned to working on mozilla.org issues. However, the division of her hours gradually became more and more weighted towards her Mozilla work at the expense of her OSAF duties, leading to her decision to return to Mozilla full time in January 2005. She retained her seat on OSAF's board.

Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation[link]

Baker in 2008

Baker was instrumental in the creation of the Mozilla Foundation, an independent non-profit that was launched on July 15, 2003 as America Online shut down the Netscape browser division and drastically scaled back its involvement with the Mozilla project. Baker became the President of the Mozilla Foundation and was appointed to the five-person Board of Directors.^[2]

When the Mozilla Corporation was launched as a taxable subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation on August 3, 2005, Baker was named the CEO of the new entity. In addition, she joined the Mozilla Corporation's Board of Directors, though she also kept her seat on the Mozilla Foundation's board, as well as her role as Chairperson.

On January 8, 2008, Mozilla announced that Baker, while retaining her role as Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation, would no longer serve as CEO of the Corporation, and that MoCo's Chief Operating Officer John Lilly would take over this role.^[10] The reasons cited for this change was Mozilla's rapid growth, which made it difficult for executives to continue to wear many hats.^[11]

Public records indicate she received $500,000 USD in salary and benefits for her work in her multiple roles with Mozilla in 2007.^[12]

Awards and recognition[link]

Mitchell Baker was listed among the 2005 Top 100 by TIME Magazine, in the "Scientists & Thinkers" section.^[13]

In 2009, Mitchell Baker received the Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award for Social Impact.^[14]

In 2012, Baker was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.^[15]

Personal life[link]

Mitchell is married to Casey Dunn^[5] and has one son.^[1]

As a hobby, she is a skilled trapeze artist, "flying" two or three times a week.^[16][17] She can also speak conversational Mandarin Chinese.

She is known for her unique hair style, with her hair cut in a bob on the right side of her head, and very short on the left. Her hair coincidentally bears a resemblance to the Firefox logo.^[16][18][19]

Quote[link]

This page is a candidate to be copied to Wikiquote using the Transwiki process. If the page can be expanded into an encyclopedic article, rather than a list of quotes, please do so and remove this message.

"The average consumer does not know the difference between browser, Internet and search box."^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mitchell Baker

• Firefox, Community and Lizard Wrangling, Mitchell Baker speaks at Stanford University
• Mitchell Baker's weblog
• About the Mozilla Foundation (includes information about Baker's role at the Mozilla Foundation)
• OSAF Mitchell Baker biography
• BBC Profile of Mitchell Baker for series Valley Girls