Tom Eacobacci Promoted to President and Chief Operating
Officer; Mattias Eriksson Appointed President of BlackBerry IoT
Business Unit
WATERLOO, ON, April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BlackBerry
Limited (NYSE:BB) (TSX:BB) today announced steps to further align
operations and go-to-market efforts to its key market opportunities
as well as strengthen its management team. This follows the
company's previous announcement to separately report revenues of
its operating business units in the new fiscal year.
With Software and Services growth as the top priority for fiscal
year 2022, BlackBerry will organize around two business units:
Cyber Security and IoT. To drive focus in each of these
market opportunities BlackBerry is appointing business unit general
managers with deep industry expertise to provide direction to
strategy, engineering, direct and channel sales, customer support
and field marketing.
BlackBerry has promoted President Tom
Eacobacci to BlackBerry President and Chief Operating
Officer. Eacobacci will also serve as Acting General
Manager of the Cyber Security business unit, which combines
BlackBerry Spark® together with the company's critical
event management and secure communications solutions. Eacobacci,
who brings deep expertise in enterprise software, will continue to
drive the company's growth in the highly attractive cybersecurity
market where BlackBerry® technology, driven by
Cylance® AI, has unique competitive differentiation.
Additionally, Eacobacci will assist Executive Chairman and CEO
John Chen to implement BlackBerry's
corporate business plans and strategy.
BlackBerry is also announcing the appointment of Mattias Eriksson as President and General
Manager of the newly-formed BlackBerry IoT business unit. The
business unit consists of BlackBerry Technology Solutions or BTS
(BlackBerry® QNX®, BlackBerry Certicom®,
BlackBerry Radar® and BlackBerry Jarvis™) and BlackBerry
IVY™. Eriksson will be responsible for driving IoT platform
strategy and operations and will join BlackBerry on May 3rd, reporting to Mr.
Chen.
Eriksson brings over two decades of experience in automotive
location data services, mobile communications, and embedded
software. Most recently Eriksson held the position of Senior
Vice President, Global Head of Product for HERE Technologies where
he was responsible for developing and executing the company's
location services platform strategy and product roadmap. Eriksson
also held leadership positions with Motorola, Siemens, and
Arthur D. Little.
"Cybersecurity and IoT are recognized high-growth markets where
BlackBerry can add tremendous value. BlackBerry is applying its
world-class security expertise to address the needs of these
markets," said Mr. Chen. "The promotion of Tom, addition of
Mattias, and the alignment of our business around our key market
opportunities sharpens our operational focus to unlock the
company's shareholder value."
"BlackBerry is delivering the next generation of cloud-based, AI
cybersecurity solutions to address today's and tomorrow's
cybersecurity threats and ensure organizations of all sizes remain
safe, secure and productive," said Eacobacci. "I am excited to work
with John to execute this next phase of our corporate
strategy."
"BlackBerry is a leader in the IoT and embedded software systems
market with its software installed in an impressive number of
endpoints. BlackBerry is poised to extend this position by
accelerating the adoption of emerging automotive connected services
with the BlackBerry IVY platform, as well as by targeting other
related industries," said Eriksson. "I am eager to help John
and the team realize the company's potential in this exciting
market."
About BlackBerry
BlackBerry (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) provides intelligent security
software and services to enterprises and governments around the
world. The company secures more than 500M endpoints including 175M cars on the road today. Based in
Waterloo, Ontario, the company
leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions
in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy solutions,
and is a leader in the areas of endpoint security, endpoint
management, encryption, and embedded systems. BlackBerry's
vision is clear - to secure a connected future you can trust.
BlackBerry. Intelligent Security. Everywhere.
For more information, visit BlackBerry.com and follow
@BlackBerry.
Trademarks, including but not limited to BLACKBERRY and
EMBLEM Design are the trademarks or registered trademarks of
BlackBerry Limited, and the exclusive rights to such trademarks are
expressly reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners. BlackBerry is not responsible for any
third-party products or services.
Media Contact:
BlackBerry Media Relations
+1 (519) 597-7273
mediarelations@BlackBerry.com
Investor Contact:
BlackBerry Investor Relations
+1 (519) 888-7465
investor_relations@blackberry.com
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SOURCE BlackBerry Limited