BlackBerry today announced the departures of COO Kristian Tear and CMO Frank Boulben, as well as the replacement of Brian Bidulka with James Yersh as its Chief Financial Officer. Yersh
was previously Senior Vice President.
Current CEO John Chen—who recently stepped in as Thorsten Heins’ replacement—thanked Tear, Boulben and Bidulka for their efforts in a statement released by the company. He added, “I look forward to working more directly with the talented teams of engineers, and the sales and marketing teams around the world to facilitate the BlackBerry turn-around and to drive innovation,”
The statement did not make mention of possible replacements for Tear and Boulben. As the Globe and Mail points out, both Tear and Boulben were brought in from outside the company by Heins.
Yersh has been at BlackBerry since 2008 and previously served as controller and as the company’s head of compliance. Bidulka will stay on as a special advisor to the CEO until the end of the fiscal year.
The shakeups are coming fairly soon after Chen took the chief executive position. In his previous work as CEO of Sybase, Chen is credited with righting the ship at the struggling software company.
In addition to the management changes, BlackBerry announced that Roger Martin, a member of the company’s board since 2007, has resigned.
