Marty Beard is the former CEO of LiveOps who left to become chief operating officer of BlackBerry, a move which emphasises not only the pull of BlackBerry CEO John Chen but the belief and fath that his previous employees have in him.
Marty Beard says that he was attracted by the way that his former CEO at Sybase is repositioning BlackBerry to help large companies manage secure communications in a world dominated by mobile computing.
“There’s this huge new phase coming and BlackBerry is uniquely positioned to take advantage of it,” said Beard.
“The broader play is the Internet of Things, of which a mobile device is a thing.
“That’s going to take off. It will be the next wave of mobility. It’s bigger than most people realize, and what’s going to happen is securing all that and managing all that so it doesn’t get out of control will become very important.”
Beard is the latest former Sybase executive to rejoin Chen since he became CEO and chairman of BlackBerry last November. Others include Mark Wilson, senior vice president of marketing and Global Sales President Eric Johnson.
One thing Beard said he has learned as a veteran of the mobile computing space is that fortunes change extremely quickly, and he said BlackBerry has a lot of powder – including roughly $3.1 billion in liquid assets – still available to stay in the fight.
“With mobile, it’s never over. There’s this huge new phase coming and BlackBerry is uniquely positioned,” Beard said.
“John is already stabilizing the company and preparing us to have the capability and the financial might to go after that. It’s an awesome market and man opportunity.”
[signoff predefined=”Enjoy this?” icon=”icon-users”][/signoff]
