Thorsten Heins

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Thorsten Heins

Born	(1957-12-29) December 29, 1957 Gifhorn, West Germany
Residence	Toronto
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Hannover
Occupation	Former President and CEO of BlackBerry Ltd

Thorsten Heins (born December 29, 1957) is a German businessman and the former chief executive officer of BlackBerry Ltd. He was fired from Blackberry on 4th November 2013.

Early life and education

Thorsten was born in Gifhorn, Germany. He has a German diploma in science and physics from the University of Hannover.

Business career

Prior to his position as CEO and President of BlackBerry, Heins held several positions in the wireless technology industry including the chief technology officer of Siemens' Communications Division and several general management positions in hardware and software businesses.^[1]

Heins joined RIM (Currently Blackberry) in 2007. He rose through the ranks starting as senior vice president of BlackBerry Handheld Business Unit; chief operating officer of product engineering; and finally chief operating officer of product and sales since July 2011 before becoming CEO and President.^[2]

In January 2012 he was named to succeed BlackBerry company founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as president and CEO of BlackBerry. On November 4th, 2013, BlackBerry announced that he stepped down as CEO and John S. Chen would replace him.

During his time as CEO, BlackBerry continued to struggle, and in November 2013, Heins was subsequently removed his position and given a $22 million severance payment. Many critics have doubted the validity of receiving such a large settlement on the grounds that Heins failed in his primary objective of saving the company. He was replaced John Chen, a veteran Silicon Valley executive.^[3]

References

↑
↑ Thorsten Gerhard Heins. "Thorsten Heins: Executive Profile & Biography - BusinessWeek". Investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2012-01-23.
↑ Posted: Nov 4, 2012 12:32 PM EST (2013-011-04). "BlackBerry fires CEO Thorsten Heins as $4.7bn Fairfax rescue bid collapses". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-011-04.

Business positions
Preceded by Jim Balsillie/Mike Lazaridis (co-chairs)	BlackBerry CEO 2012-2013	Succeeded by John S. Chen

v t e BlackBerry Limited

BlackBerry Brand

Executive Team	John S. Chen (Interim CEO and Executive Chair) Frank Boulben (Chief Marketing Officer) Kristian Tear (Chief Operating Officer) Brian Bidulka (Chief Financial Officer) Steven E. Zipperstein (Chief Legal Officer)

Current devices	Q5 Q10 Z10 Z30 PlayBook Bold Curve Torch 9720 P'9982

Discontinued devices	Charm Electron Pearl Quark Storm Storm 2 Style Tour

Operating Systems	BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry Tablet OS QNX OS BlackBerry OS

Services	BlackBerry World Enterprise Server Internet Service Messenger (BBM)

Persondata
Name	Heins, Thorston
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 29, 1957
Place of birth	Gifhorn, Germany
Date of death
Place of death

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