BlackBerry have announced the appointment of Ralph Pini as Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for Devices. Pini will succeed Ron Louks as the device divisions COO.
Louks left the company on Friday, a BlackBerry spokeswoman said.
The appointment follows the hiring of Alex Thurber two weeks ago to oversee BlackBerry’s in-house sales teams for devices and its efforts to generate additional revenue from sales of these products through carriers and other partners.
Pini has been with BlackBerry for 4 years, after his company, Paratek Microwave Inc., was acquired in 2012, and he became Vice President for Radio Frequency Technology.
Pini states:
“I most recently served as the President and CEO at Paratek Microwave Inc., a company acquired by BlackBerry in 2012 which focuses on creating adaptive radio-frequency technology to improve mobile-handset call quality and battery life. There I was responsible for developing and commercializing Adaptive Tunable technologies to improve RF performance of wireless devices. I also held various positions within Motorola Inc., including Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Mobile Cellular Group. I was instrumental in the development and creation of the many iconic products at Motorola, including the Motorola RAZR. Also while at Motorola, I ran the EMEA operations, making this business unit a significant contributor to the financial success of the Motorola Mobile Group”
Pini states that he has three main priorities for the device business:
“The shifts and disruptions taking place in enterprise mobility today all signal great opportunity for BlackBerry to grow its customer base. I’m focused on three critical components to drive that. One, expanding on choice: we’re continuing to support customers who rely on BB10 even as we make more options available to those companies transitioning to Android. Two, leveraging security: more companies are adopting BYOD and enterprise fleet strategies that are creating enormous endpoint security challenges for IT – no one is better positioned to solve these challenges than BlackBerry, whether it is with BB10 or Android. Three, building on the BlackBerry pedigree. As governments and enterprises confront these new user-driven dynamics and demands in mobility, BlackBerry is uniquely positioned to elevate Android as a more viable, hardened option to meet the demands of government and enterprise customers who need the highest levels of security. The bottom line, I want to give enterprise decision-makers everything they need to define and implement their EMM strategy.”
While he acknowledges the BB10OS, the part about transitioning to Android will once again add fuel to the fire on the future of BB10:
“… One, expanding on choice: we’re continuing to support customers who rely on BB10 even as we make more options available to those companies transitioning to Android. …”
Pini will report to BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO, John Chen.
