10 Things to Know About RIM’s New CEO, Thorsten Heins

RIM's New President and CEO Thorsten Heins

PCWorld - BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) yesterday appointed a brand new chief executive officer and president, Thorsten Heins. The move follows months of pressure from RIM shareholders and others to oust former RIM co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. (In fact, I wrote a piece earlier this month explaining why a major leadership change was in order at RIM.)

Check out the following list for 10 interesting tidbits on Mr. Heins, his past and his plans for RIM and BlackBerry in the coming months and years.

1) Thorsten Heins is of German origin, and his middle name is Gerhard.

“I’m German, and I’m a big fan of the term ‘process discipline’,” he said with laugh in a conference call this morning.

In addition to his role at RIM, Heins is also a Board Member of the German Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Toronto, according to BusinessWeek.com.

2) Heins has been with RIM since December 2007, serving as a SVP of the company’s handheld business unit and then as one of RIMs two chief operating officers. He played key roles in the creation of RIMs product portfolio. Before working for RIM, Heins was employed by Siemens, starting in 1984 just after his graduation from the University of Hannover in Germany, where he earned a master’s degree in science and physics.

3) Heins says he is open to licensing the BlackBerry OS, but it’s not his main concern at this point.

“I will entertain those discussions; I will assess the business opportunity for RIM,” Heins said. “And I will make the decision together with the board. It’s not my focus. ”



However, he does believe that the upcoming BlackBerry 10 handheld OS, which is expected to be released along with at least one new device in late 2012, will become an attractive option for hardware makers looking to license software.

“I’m absolutely confident that BlackBerry 10 will prove itself,” Heins said                       More