BlackBerry CEO hires another former colleague to manage ... - Latercera

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

The company Canadian Eric Johnson said he will report directly 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, previously worked important executive positions at SAP AG and Sybase. Now students will join SAP and Sybase, managing equipment procurement, marketing and sales of BlackBerry business.

Sybase Chen revitalized 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,” Chen said in a statement. “I hope to show these changes in the market,” he added.

Chen, who recently dropped the “interim” qualification for office, took over after the pioneer of wireless email lost most phone market smart at the hands of Apple Inc’s iPhone and a number of devices using the Android software Google Inc.

Last year, the company posted sluggish 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 John 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.