BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) has announced that John Chen, the Executive Chair and CEO of BlackBerry, will retire from the company, effective as of November 4, 2023. This retirement aligns with the terms of Mr. Chen’s contract and follows the conclusion of the Project Imperium evaluation. Richard (Dick) Lynch will succeed Mr. Chen as Board Chair and will also serve as the Interim Chief Executive Officer while BlackBerry conducts its search for a permanent CEO.
Mr. Lynch, who joined the BlackBerry Board in 2013 and serves as a member of its Compensation, Nomination, and Governance Committee, has a strong industry background. He previously served as Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Verizon Communications and Verizon Wireless. He is a director of Cohere Technologies and Iconectiv and has served as Chairman of Ribbon Communications and as a director of Ruckus Wireless.
BlackBerry is a provider of intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments worldwide. The company secures more than 500 million endpoints, including over 235 million vehicles.
“The BlackBerry Board of Directors would like to express its gratitude to John for his decade of strong leadership. His achievement of saving BlackBerry and repositioning it as a software company with leading Cybersecurity and IoT technologies has been remarkable,” said Prem Watsa, the Lead Director of the BlackBerry Board.
Mr. Chen himself remarked, “It has been an honor to lead and transform this iconic company over the past decade. I’m proud to have been able to establish BlackBerry’s vision of a trusted, software-defined world and to position the company to unlock value through the separation of our core business units into two separate operating companies. I want to thank everyone across the BlackBerry community – the Board, employees, customers, partners, and more – for your support during my tenure and wish the company every success in the future.”
Mike Daniels, Chair of the Compensation, Nomination, and Governance Committee of the BlackBerry Board, also expressed his appreciation: “I have known John Chen for almost two decades and have always been impressed with his focus and leadership. I want to thank John for his accomplishments and dedication to BlackBerry during a critical era for the company.”
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