Blackberry appoints head of global sales Eric Johnson - Reuters

TORONTO, Jan. 14 (Reuters / EP) –

The BlackBerry smartphone maker Ltd has hired another former teammate of its new chief executive to head its global sales team as part of its latest effort to bring forward a restructuring.

The Canadian company has announced that Eric Johnson will report to John Chen, who took over as CEO in early November after BlackBerry scrapped a campaign to be sold.

Johnson, who is president of global sales, has previously worked in key executive positions at SAP AG and Sybase. Now he will join his students in SAP and Sybase, managing equipment acquisitions, marketing and sales of BlackBerry business.

Chen

revitalized Sybase before managing its integration into SAP after a completed acquisition in 2010.

“The experience that most of the new leadership team has worked together previously produce more rapid changes within the organization,” said Chen in a statement. “I hope to demonstrate these changes in the market.”

Last year, the company posted weak sales of new devices and billions of dollars in writedowns, but its shares have risen from lows of a decade since Chen took office.

BlackBerry has made other staff changes since the arrival of Chen, including hiring a chief of his troubled business devices and replacing its chief financial officer with people from outside the orbit of Chen.

BlackBerry is quite out of the fiercely competitive business phone consumer. The company is now setting their sights on corporations, governments and other large customers that were the basis of their initial success.