RIM, the company behind the Blackberry brand, has announced that Thorsten Heins will be its new leader as Mike Lazaridis steps down from the CEO role to become the Vice Chair of RIM’s board. ““There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership”, says Mike Lazaridis.Thorsten Heins joined RIM in 2007 from Siemens Communications Group as Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering. He subsequently became Chief Operating Officer for Product and Sales in August 2011.
Under his leadership, RIM will have to navigate turbulent waters with a decline in market share, but also with the maturation of a number of new products, including the transition from the legacy Blackberry software over to the QNX one. At the moment, no big policy change have been announced, but it will be interesting to see how Thorsten Heins will manage this delicate transition. Despite losing some star power in the past year, the Blackberry brand still counts a lot of hardcore users. The question is: will their ranks grow, or shrink?
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