Executive shuffling continues at BlackBerry as they announced on Monday that Kristian Tear, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, and Frank Boulben, their Chief Marketing Officer, are leaving as part of the ongoing reorganization effort. What’s more, it was revealed that James Yersh will replace Brian Bidulka as Chief Financial Officer while longtime board member Roger Martin has resigned.
Bidulka will remain with BlackBerry as a special advisor to the CEO through the remainder of the fiscal year to help with the transition. The company didn’t announce an immediate replacement for the vacated positions nor were we given a reason as to why those that left are doing so (aside from the obvious turnaround effort).
The decision comes just three weeks after the struggling Canadian handset maker announced the $4.7 billion acquisition offer from Fairfax Financial Holdings was off the table and CEO Thorsten Heins was stepping down. He was replaced by interim CEO John Chen until a permanent replacement can be found.
In a statement on the matter, Chen thanked Tear and Blulben for their efforts on behalf of the company in addition to thanking Bidulka for his eight years of service. He will continue to align his senior management team and organizational structure and refine the company’s strategy moving forward, he said.
Chen also added he looked forward to working more directly with the teams of engineers as well as the sales and marketing teams around the world to facilitate the BlackBerry turnaround.
