Brendan Eich is the creator of JavaScript and the co-founder and CEO of Brave Software, the company behind Brave Browser and the Basic Attention Token ecosystem. He previously co-founded the Mozilla project and held technical and executive roles at Mozilla.
Brave and BAT
Eich co-founded Brave with Brian Bondy in 2015. Brave builds a browser with tracking protections, along with search, wallet, advertising and AI products. Its current leadership page identifies Eich as founder and CEO.
Basic Attention Token was introduced in 2017 as part of Brave’s advertising and rewards model. Brave Rewards is optional; it lets eligible users earn BAT for participating in the advertising program. Token rewards and wallet features are parts of the product ecosystem rather than requirements for using the browser.
Eich continues to write about Brave’s technology. In an October 2026 article with members of its engineering and research team, he described new encryption and confidential-computing protections for Brave’s Leo AI assistant.
JavaScript and Mozilla
Eich created JavaScript while working at Netscape. He later helped establish Mozilla and served as its chief technology officer. Mozilla’s 2013 leadership announcement also identified him as senior vice president of engineering.
He became Mozilla CEO on March 24, 2014, and resigned on April 3. Mozilla’s account of the resignation describes the public scrutiny around a past political donation and states that he resigned voluntarily. His subsequent work at Brave has centered on browser technology, privacy and alternatives to conventional online advertising.
