Blackberry turns to enterprise software specialist in leadership shuffle
by Canadian Manufacturing.com Staff
Company names former Cisco executive head of global sales
WATERLOO, ONT.—BlackBerry has appointed Carl Wiese, a former Cisco executive, president of Global Sales. The smartphone maker, which recently refocused its business strategy on enterprise software, said Wiese will be responsible for driving BlackBerry’s go-to-market strategy and advancing the company’s global sales efforts.
Wiese joins BlackBerry from Cisco, where he spent more than a decade in senior leadership positions, most recently, as senior vice-president leading the company’s global collaboration business, directing sales as well as the market strategy. Cisco’s collaboration business is focused on software that allow companies to connect with their own divisions and employees as well as their clients from anywhere, on any device, and represents a market similar to Blackberry’s enterprise portfolio.
“I am pleased to welcome Carl – a veteran sales leader – to BlackBerry to be the head of our global sales organization,” John Chen, executive chairman and CEO of BlackBerry, said. “We are deeply committed to working with our customers to bring them the most innovative and secure solutions, and Carl will be central to that effort.”
“Carl has extensive experience in enterprise software and emerging technology solutions, which will be instrumental as BlackBerry moves toward stabilizing revenue and sustaining profitability,” he added.
Wiese will report to Chen, and will replace John Sims, who has left the company. Blackberry did not elaborate further on Sims’s departure; he had served as sales chief since January of 2014.
Blackberry said during his tenure at Cisco, Wiese successfully drove the company’s sales and deployment for new and emerging technologies that represented some of the company’s highest potential growth segments. His expertise in enterprise software is likely to contribute to Blackberry’s shifting business strategy as the company continues to search for new revenue streams in the wake of shrinking handset sales.
Wiese has previously held executive positions at Apple, Avaya, Lucent and Texas Instruments.
