BlackBerry is continuing to restock its executive offices as interim CEO John Chen revamps the money-losing smartphone company with a focus on business customers.
Mark Wilson
The Waterloo, Ont.,-based company announced two new appointments Wednesday aimed at strengthening its strategy and marketing operations.
James Mackey, who comes to BlackBerry from Open Text, was appointed executive vice-president for corporate development and strategic planning, while Avaya executive Mark Wilson was named senior vice-president of marketing.
Wilson will join BlackBerry in January from Avaya, where as CMO he led the marketing transition to a customer-solutions orientation. He previously served as senior vice-president of corporate and field marketing at Sybase, and has extensive experience in marketing roles at AT&T and KPMG.
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Mackey served as senior vice-president of corporate development at Open Text Corp., as well as head of corporate development at SAP AG, where he developed and led the global merger and acquisitions group and completed more than 40 acquisitions.
“Jim and Mark are important appointments for BlackBerry as they bring extensive experience and add the necessary leadership and depth that will help us drive our transformation,” Chen said.
“I have worked extensively with both of them in the past, have the utmost respect for their experience and accomplishments, and we have developed close and trusted relationships with each other that will enable us to cohesively manage the changes required to reshape BlackBerry.”
On Tuesday, BlackBerry announce the hiring of another SAP executive, John Sims, as president of its global enterprise services business. The a 20-year veteran of the mobile telecommunications industry, who also joins the company in January, was president of the business software company’s mobile services business.
Since Chen joined BlackBerry last month, he has started a dramatic overhaul of its executive ranks, with both the chief operating officer and chief marketing officer leaving their roles. Chief financial officer Brian Bidulka was also replaced.
On Monday, it was announced that Rick Costanzo, executive vice-president of global sales, and Chris Wormald, vice-president of strategic alliances, would be leaving.
BlackBerry reports its third-quarter financial results on Friday.
