Warterloo, Ontario – Research
In Motion (RIM) announced it has hired Kristian Tear as COO and Frank Boulben
as chief marketing officer.
The pair join the
company after a
in
which the co-COOs, Mike
Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, resigned in the wake of the company’s declining
market share.
Tear was mostly recently
executive VP at Sony Mobile Communications and also served as a member of the executive
management team, and as chairman of the board of Sony Mobile Inc Americas and
Sony Mobile International AB. He has previously worked for Ericsson in Europe,
Asia and Latin America.
Tear will be in charge
of all operational functions for handhelds and services, including research and
development, products, global sales, manufacturing and supply chain, RIM said.
Boulben, who will
oversee global marketing efforts at RIM, was previously strategy, marketing and
sales executive VP for LightSquared, and has also worked for Vodafone Group and
Orange Group.
