Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
John Chen is Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry. Appointed in November 2013, John led BlackBerry’s turnaround stabilizing the company’s financial position, ensuring its viability, and pivoting its operations from consumer hardware to enterprise software. Today the company takes advantage of the current growth opportunities in IoT and Cybersecurity and is pioneering the convergence of these two markets.
John is a distinguished business leader and proven turnaround executive with over 40 years of engineering and management experience. Prior to joining BlackBerry, John served as Chairman and CEO of Sybase Inc. where he re-invented the company and achieved 55 consecutive quarters of profitability during his 15-year tenure.
Recognized as a thought leader and as a respected voice in foreign policy, John has testified before Congress on U.S.–China trade relations and was appointed by U.S. President George W. Bush to serve on the President's Export Council. In 2006, he was appointed co-chair of the Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee. Additionally, John chaired the U.S.-China Policy Advisory Roundtable for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), served on the Board of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations since 2012, and has been a member of the Committee of 100 since 1997 and its Chairman from 2009-2011.
John graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). John has an honorary professorship from Shanghai University, and honorary doctorates from San Jose State University, City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. John has received awards from the U.S.-Asia Institute, the U.S.-China Policy Foundation, the California-Asia Business Council, and the U.S.-Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation.
John served on the Board of Directors for The Walt Disney Company (2004-2019) and Wells Fargo & Co. (2006-2018) and as a trustee of Caltech (2008-2022). John is an Advisory Board member of the US Chamber China Center. He is also active in the not-for-profit community, and is a board member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, member of CFR, national trustee of The First Tee and Governor of the San Francisco Symphony.
Chief Government Affairs and Public Policy Officer
Marjorie Dickman is Chief Government Affairs and Public Policy Officer for BlackBerry. In this role, Marjorie is responsible for strategic oversight of the company’s global government relations, regulatory affairs, and public policy operations. Additionally, she oversees the company’s participation in technical standards organizations worldwide.
Marjorie has over 25 years of government relations, regulatory affairs, and public policy experience in the technology sector. She joined BlackBerry following a 16-year career with Intel Corporation, where she most recently served as Global Director and Associate General Counsel for IoT and Automated Driving Policy, managing a global team across the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan. Prior to Intel, Marjorie practiced law with a prominent Washington, D.C. firm.
Marjorie serves on the Boards of the Consumer Technology Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Technology Engagement Center, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and the Eno Center for Transportation. She holds a J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. cum laude in Public Policy from Duke University. And she is deeply dedicated to mentoring others to achieve their career goals.
Marjorie’s distinctions include “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Tech” (National Diversity Council), “Tech Titan” (Washingtonian), and “Top Lobbyist” (The Hill).
President, BlackBerry IoT
Mattias Eriksson is President and General Manager of BlackBerry’s IOT Business Unit. The business unit consists of BlackBerry Technology Solutions or BTS (BlackBerry® QNX®, BlackBerry Certicom®, BlackBerry Radar® and BlackBerry Jarvis™) and BlackBerry IVY™. Prior to joining BlackBerry, Mattias spent 10 years with HERE Technologies in various leadership roles, including SVP of the core location data business group and SVP of product. Mattias brings over two decades of experience in automotive location data services, mobile communications and embedded software to BlackBerry.
Mattias started his career in management consulting for Arthur D. Little and then spent 15 years in APAC working in a variety of management roles across Sales-, Business Development and Product Management for Nokia, Motorola, and Siemens.
Mattias holds a M.Sc. in Engineering Physics from Lund Institute of Technology, a B.Sc. in Marketing and Economics from Lund University and an M.B.A. from INSEAD.
President, BlackBerry
Cyber Security
John Giamatteo is President of BlackBerry’s Cyber Security Business Unit with responsibility for its business strategy, engineering, go-to-market, customer support and operations. John brings to BlackBerry over 30 years of experience in P&L, go-to-market, marketing, customer relationships, and customer success with global high technology companies. He comes to BlackBerry from McAfee where he was President and Chief Revenue Officer for over six years. Prior to that John served as Chief Operating Officer at AVG Technologies, a leading provider of internet and mobile security. He also held leadership positions with Solera Holdings, RealNetworks, Inc., and Nortel Corporation.
John received his MBA and Bachelor of Accounting from St. John’s University in New York.
Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary
Phil Kurtz is BlackBerry’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary with responsibility for the company’s worldwide legal affairs, including litigation, contracts administration, and regulatory compliance.
Phil joined the company over 12 years ago as M&A Commercial Counsel, progressed to Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary, and Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary before his promotion to Chief Legal Officer. Phil holds a BA Philosophy from Huron University and LLB/MBA in Law & Business (Finance) from University of Toronto.
Phil holds LLB and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto and a BA from The University of Western Ontario, and he is a CFA charterholder. In 2012, Phil was a recipient of the Forty Under 40 Award from the Ottawa Business Journal and Ottawa Chamber of Commerce.
Chief Financial Officer
As Chief Financial Officer, Steve Rai is responsible for oversight of global internal and external financial reporting and compliance, financial strategy and management, business unit support, investor relations, and equity administration. Steve also oversees BlackBerry’s Intellectual Property and Licensing operations and is responsible for the Company’s Environmental, Social and Governance corporate reporting and compliance. Previously, Steve was Deputy Chief Financial Officer, and prior to that was Vice President and Corporate Controller for BlackBerry. In these roles he was responsible for overseeing various aspects of the CFO Organization, including financial reporting and compliance, non-field financial operations including corporate financial planning & analysis, treasury, procurement, facilities, insurance and equity administration.
Steve brings more than 25 years of progressive experience in financial management, business advisory and assurance services to U.S. and Canadian public companies, ranging from start-ups to multinational corporations.
Before joining BlackBerry, Steve was Corporate Controller for PMC-Sierra. He previously held senior management positions with TSX Venture Exchange and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Steve holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with an accounting and finance major from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. He is a Certified Public Accountant through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Illinois (USA) and a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants in British Columbia, Canada.
Chief Human Resources Officer
Nita is responsible for leading the HR team to design and deliver global programs, initiatives, partnerships, solutions and services in all facets of HR to support the achievement of the company’s operational goals and strategic objectives.
Before joining BlackBerry, Nita served as Chief People Officer for SAP Cloud and SuccessFactors. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Worldwide Human Resources for Sybase, Inc., where she was responsible for providing and implementing high quality, state-of-the-art human resource and security services and programs for Sybase employees, management, executives and campuses worldwide.
Nita has an MBA from Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif., and has also completed several courses towards an MA in Counseling Psychology from the same institution. She earned her BS in Business Administration with finance and accounting major with honors.
Senior Leaders
Chief Technology Officer
Appointed in June 2018, Charles Eagan is the Chief Technology Officer for BlackBerry. In this role, Charles is responsible for the advancement of new technologies, driving innovation within emerging markets and advancing security capabilities that leverage AI and Machine Learning. He is also responsible for technology partnerships and overseeing the standardization and integration of all company products with an emphasis on helping drive BlackBerry’s Internet of Things platform.
Charles was previously the Global Head of Electronics at Dyson Ltd (U.K.), focused on IoT device deployment. Prior to that he served as BlackBerry’s Global Head of Device Software, and spearheaded development of the BlackBerry 10 operating system and the transition to secure Android.
Charles was formerly Vice President of Engineering for QNX Software, where he concentrated on the automotive and embedded markets. He also worked at Cisco and directed development of the seminal CRS-1 carrier routing system.
In 2008, Charles co-founded Crank Software, a company dedicated to the development of embedded tools and technologies that enabled rapid building of highly functional graphical interfaces. Earlier in his career, he built connected devices for Honda in the areas of process control, factory automation and robotics.
Charles is a noted speaker, thought leader and IoT expert who has been at the forefront of new frontiers in digital connectivity for over three decades. He graduated with honors from the University of Waterloo (Canada) with a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and electrical engineering minor.
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Operating Officer, BlackBerry Technology Solutions
Reporting to BlackBerry’s CEO, Vito leads BlackBerry's Corporate Development activities, M&A and strategic partnerships. He is also the Chief Operating Officer of BlackBerry Technology Solutions (BTS), the Company's business unit focused on embedded IoT and AI-driven vehicle solutions. As COO of BTS reporting to the unit’s President, he supports the managing of strategy, pricing, and launch of the next-generation platform, IVY, its ecosystem and partnerships development.
Vito joined BlackBerry after more than a decade as a technology investment banker in New York and London at Morgan Stanley and then at Perella Weinberg Partners as a Managing Director. He has also worked at Naspers as Corporate Development Principal, and held several engineering roles at Cisco Systems earlier in his career.
Vito received a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from both the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Illinois and Masters in Business Administration from INSEAD.
Chief Information Officer
Jesse Harold is the Chief Information Officer at BlackBerry. In this role, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the CIO organization.
Jesse has been with BlackBerry for over 13 years. He joined the company’s Core Network Engineering team in 2008. His BlackBerry career has seen him progress to Senior Manager, Senior Director, and then to Vice President. His academic background consists of a Telecommunications advanced diploma from Sheridan College and MBA from Queen’s University.
Chief Technical Advisor to the CEO
Billy is the appointed Chief Technical Advisor to the CEO. He previously led BlackBerry’s Spark Group Product Management and Software Development organizations, and has been pivotal in BlackBerry’s transformation from its hardware handset origin to today’s enterprise software company.
Prior to joining BlackBerry, Billy served as Senior Vice President of Product & Technology Operations at Sybase, Inc. where he was responsible for Sybase technology research, product development, and customer support. He held many other leadership positions within Sybase, including General Manager of the OEM Business Unit, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the e-Business Division, and Vice President of the Product Development, Enterprise Solutions Division. He also served as Director of Engineering at Unisys and Siemens.
Billy earned a MS in Computer Science from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California and a BS in Electrical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Chief Information Security Officer
Arvind Raman is a Senior Vice President and BlackBerry’s Chief Information Security Officer. In this role, he leads all aspects of our information security, product security & GRC program globally, focusing on effective management of cybersecurity risks, policies and procedures.
Arvind brings over 20 years of information security, technology, R&D experience and leadership to BlackBerry. Arvind’s previous experience include serving as the Global CISO at Mitel, Global Head Information Security for Scotia Bank and Director of Cyber & Data Security for CIBC.
Arvind holds a Bachelors in Electronics and Communications Engineering from India, Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Temple University, Philadelphia. He also holds an MBA from Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada.
Chief Elite Customer Success Officer and Chief Marketing Officer
Neelam Sandhu is Chief Elite Customer Success Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, at BlackBerry, reporting to the CEO. As Chief Elite Customer Success Officer she leads the strategic relationships, sales, and co-sell, and customer success, including strategic product engineering, with BlackBerry’s top customers and top target customers, driving them to gain long-term competitive advantages by leveraging the breadth and depth of the BlackBerry platform. As Chief Marketing Officer she leads marketing across channels, including public relations, social media, editorial content, branding, advertising, web, and corporate events.
Neelam is also Head of Sustainability, responsible for corporate sustainability, at BlackBerry, and has delivered the company’s inaugural ESG report and its carbon neutral status. Additionally, she assists the CEO on some operational tasks.
Since joining BlackBerry in 2009 Neelam has held various positions, based out of the company’s United Kingdom, New York and California offices. Her responsibilities have included Brand Management, Brand Messaging, Marketing Operations, Go-To-Market Planning, Corporate Strategic Initiatives, and CEO Office Business Operations. Neelam serves on the Board of AFCEA DC. Neelam won the FedScoop Best Bosses in Federal IT award in 2022. She holds a Bachelor’s degree, with Honors, in Business Management, from the University of Leicester and an Executive Certification in Financial Analysis from the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Senior Vice President and Co-Head BlackBerry Technology Solutions - Products, Engineering and Operations
As Senior Vice President and Co-Head of BlackBerry Technology Solutions (BTS), John Wall is responsible for the planning, design, and development of QNX Software Systems (embedded software) and Certicom (cryptography applications).
John has been an integral member of the BlackBerry QNX team since 1993. He has held a variety of roles within the organization, including vice president of engineering and services. He holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering, in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa.
Project Imperium Officer
As Project Imperium Officer, Mark Wilson is responsible for coordinating the cross-functional effort to review BlackBerry’s business portfolio and configuration. Prior to this role, Mark served as BlackBerry’s Chief Marketing Officer.
Before joining BlackBerry, Mark held leadership roles in marketing, corporate development, and consulting in the technology and communications industries. He was Chief Marketing Officer for Avaya, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Sybase, an SAP Company, leader of the strategy practice at KPMG Consulting's Information, Communication and Entertainment Group, and a Marketing Manager for AT&T.
Mark holds an MBA and an MA in public policy from The University of Chicago. He received his BA from University of California at Santa Barbara. He was named by BtoB Magazine as one of the Best Marketers from 2009-2011 and 2013, a CMO to watch in the 2013 FierceCMO list, and a transformative CMO in Forbes’ CMO Next 2021.