[4] Before joining the Mozilla Foundation, Mark spent more than 15 years leading organizations and projects promoting the use of the internet and open source for social empowerment in many countries around the world.

[7] Surman's writing has appeared in The Washington Post,[8] CNN.com,[9] The Globe and Mail,[10] Chronicle of Philanthropy,[11] MIT's Innovations,[12] and Fast Company.

[16] During this time, Mark also led the development of the APC Action Apps, an open source project aimed at providing content publishing and sharing for activist organizations.

Starting in 2012, Surman helped develop a collection of efforts focused on promoting digital literacy,[30] including Mozilla's Maker Party[31] event series and the Webmaker software project.

[42] The rationale for this focus was detailed in a paper entitled Creating Trustworthy AI, jointly written by Surman and Rebecca Ricks.

[43] In 2022, Surman took on the additional role of Mozilla Foundation president, working with Mitchell Baker on Mozilla-wide strategy and expansion efforts.

[44] This included the launch of Mozilla Ventures,[45] a fund to invest in responsible tech startups and Mozilla.ai,[46] an R+D arm focused on translating computer science research into open source trustworthy AI products.