BlackBerry India MD Sunil Lalvani quits for greener pastures

BlackBerry India Managing Director Sunil Lalvani has put in his papers at the Indian subsidiary of the once mighty mobile player that is now transforming itself into a software and services company focused around security. Confirming this after being asked for a comment, Varghese Thomas‎, Director - Corporate Communications and Social Media for BlackBerry India and SAARC told Firstpost, “I can confirm Sunil Lalvani has left his position as Managing Director, BlackBerry India to explore opportunities outside of BlackBerry. We thank him for his contributions. In the interim, Matthew Tonkin, VP, Carrier Sales and Distribution, APAC, will lead operations in India. We will announce a permanent replacement soon. India is an important market for BlackBerry and we are committed to our customers in this region who demand the most secure and productive mobile communications.”‎ Sunil could not be reached for a direct comment but other sources from the industry said he is moving on to greener pastures after a long stint at BlackBerry India and that he is currently serving his notice period. ‎ Sunil’s exit will be a blow to BlackBerry India as he was one of the few Country Heads at BlackBerry to come with very strong experience in the enterprise and business technology space rather than consumer-focused sales. As BlackBerry transforms itself in India too, moving from focusing on handsets to enterprise mobility management solutions built upon BlackBerry’s security USP, Sunil’s industry relationships ‎with business technology leaders as well as deep understanding of the Indian enterprise market was a big plus for BlackBerry India. ‎ Before being named Managing Director two years ago, ‎Sunil headed Enterprise Sales for BlackBerry India since 2009 and he has earlier worked with networking and enterprise players like Cisco, Nokia, SITA-Equant, and Global Telesystems in networking and telecom sales to enterprise customers in India.‎ In a press interaction a few weeks ago, Sunil Lalvani had pointed to BlackBerry’s surprise profits last quarter and had stated that BlackBerry India was well on the way to maximising revenues from software sales, in line with BlackBerry CEO John Chen’s stated objectives for turning around the company. Sunil had also told Firstpost that BES 12 was witnessing strong traction amongst enterprises and that BlackBerry India had also made a few new wins in India in the enterprise space. ‎