BlackBerry's new CEO stamps his authority: COO, CMO shown door

BlackBerry today announced that it’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Market Officer (CMO) were leaving the company as part of the on-going re-organisation. Kristian Tear was the the Company’s Chief Operating Officer, and Frank Boulben was the Company’s Chief Marketing Officer. The company has not yet announced replacements for the two.

The company also replaced its Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka with James Yersh.Yersh, who has worked at BlackBerry since 2008, previously served as Senior Vice President, Controller and as the Company’s head of Compliance. Bidulka will stay on as a special advisor to the CEO for the remainder of the fiscal year to assist with the transition.

“I thank Kristian and Frank for their efforts on behalf of BlackBerry. I look forward to working more directly with the talented teams of engineers, and the sales and marketing teams around the world to facilitate the BlackBerry turn-around and to drive innovation,” said John Chen, Executive Chair and CEO of BlackBerry in a press statement. “I also thank Brian for his eight years of dedicated service to BlackBerry. I look forward to working with James and his Finance team as we move forward, execute on our plans and deliver long-term value for our shareholders.”

Chen also sought to infuse faith in the struggling smartphone maker, saying that “BlackBerry has a strong cash position and continues, by a significant margin, to be the top provider of trusted and secure mobile device management solutions to enterprise customers around the world. Building on this core strength, and in conjunction with these management changes, I will continue to align my senior management team and organizational structure, and refine the Company’s strategy to ensure we deliver the best devices, mobile security and device management through BES 10, provide multi-platform messaging solutions with BBM, and expand adoption of QNX embedded systems.”

BlackBerry also announced today that Roger Martin, a Board member since 2007, has resigned. “Our Board has benefitted from Roger’s expertise and insights over the past six years and we wish him the best,” said Barbara Stymiest, Board Member and Former Chair of the Board.

BlackBerry has been struggling despite the launch of it’s new BlackBerry 10 OS system in January this year. The company is no longer in the list of top five worldwide smartphone suppliers. The company recently announced a deal with FairFax Investments where BlackBerry said it would raise as much as $1.25 billion through convertible debentures, which it intends to use for general corporate purposes.

Days before the deal was announced the company had replaced CEO Thorsten Heins with John Chen. Chen sought to allay fears that the company would stop producing smartphones and said that, ““What is BlackBerry without the device? The question is, can we do more in that? It’s not about let’s not do this and do that. Sometimes it’s not business sensible to make those statements.”

With the latest changes, Chen seems to be stamping his authority on the BlackBerry management with the re-haul.