BlackBerry Exec Turmoil: COO, CMO Leave, CFO Fired

Beleagured mobile device maker BlackBerry (BBRY) fired its chief financial officer (CFO) and its chief operating (COO) and marketing officers (CMO) have left the company, in the vendor’s latest management upheaval.

The smartphone maker said in a statement that COO Kristian Tear and CMO Frank Boulben will depart, while James Yersh will replace Brian Bidulka as CFO. It also said Roger Martin, a six-year board member, has resigned.

The executive shakeup is new chief executive John Chen’s first significant personnel move since taking the job earlier this month. Chen, a former Sybase turnaround specialist, took the job in a company makeover highlighted by the departure of former chief Thorsten Heins and the scuttling of a potential $4.7 billion private equity deal with Fairfax Holdings in favor of raising $1 billion from institutional investors.

Chen has pledged to remake the device maker’s management team, bringing in outside talent and elevating current management.

In a statement, Chen said he will “continue to align my senior management team and organizational structure, and refine the company’s strategy to ensure we deliver the best devices, mobile security and device management through BES 10, provide multi-platform messaging solutions with BBM, and expand adoption of QNX embedded systems.”

Yersh, who has been at BlackBerry for five years, previously served as senior vice president, controller and head of Compliance. Bidulka will stay on as a special adviser to Chen for the remainder of the fiscal year, BlackBerry said.

“I thank Kristian and Frank for their efforts on behalf of BlackBerry,” said Chen. “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 turnaround and to drive innovation. I also thank Brian for his eight years of dedicated service to BlackBerry.”