BlackBerry announced Monday that it has appointed Marty Beard as its new Chief Operating Officer.
Before receiving his new position, Beard worked for and was once the CEO and chairman of contact center provider LiveOps, according to TechCrunch. Prior to his time in LiveOps, he worked at Sybase, a software company where BlackBerry's Chief Executive John Chen was once the CEO.
BlackBerry said Beard will start at his new position immediately and that he will be in charge of different areas of operation, which include development of BlackBerry 10 apps, marketing, customer care and quality.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based telecommunications company hasn't had a COO since last November, during which changes were made in management, resulting in former COO Kristian Tear and others leaving the company, the Wall Street Journal reported. BlackBerry said at the time it wouldn't name a new COO, but Chen said in June that the company was ready to start hiring again, after laying off almost 4,500 employees and cutting back on noncore operations.
Chen highlighted during Monday's announcement his company's ability to attract executives that are important to its business, TechCrunch reported.
"BlackBerry continues to attract top talent to the company," he said. "Marty brings extensive experience in operations, marketing and serving customers through the best technologies and processes available."
Beard's appointment follows Apple and IBM's announcement last week that they were teaming up to develop mobile applications targeted toward big businesses, and that the apps would run on Apple's iPhones and iPads. BlackBerry's stock also fell by 12 percent to $9.97 after the Apple and IBM announced their deal, but has since recovered and was trading at $10.11 on Monday.
The company plans to increase its profits by introducing improved software for mobile-management and secure messaging services for customers in big businesses and government later this year.
