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BlackBerry Ltd hired former HTC Corp and Sony Ericsson executive Ron Louks to run its devices business, tasking him with reigniting demand for the company's smartphones after years of market-share losses.
Louks will serve as president of devices and emerging solutions and report directly to CEO John Chen, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said in a statement. Louks most recently served as CEO of the OpenNMS Group, following stints as chief strategy officer of HTC America Inc. and chief technology officer of Sony Ericsson.
Chen, a former Sybase Inc and SAP AG executive who took the reins at BlackBerry in November, has been shaking up management in a bid to turn around the struggling smartphone maker. In December, Chen appointed former SAP executives as BlackBerry's new heads of enterprise services, corporate strategy and marketing.
He also signed a five-year deal with Foxconn Technology Group to outsource the manufacturing and design of some of its phones.
"Ron will focus on BlackBerry's long-term product road map, including hardware, software and design, as well as the company's joint development efforts," Chen said in today's statement.
"On our path to return BlackBerry to profitability, nothing is more important than remaining deeply connected to our customers, and designing and delivering secure products that exceed their expectations."
