Pini spent 27 years with Motorola and oversaw launch of popular Razr handset, succeeds Ron Louks after two years at Canadian manufacturer
BlackBerry has appointed former Motorola veteran Ralph Pini as its new head of devices, replacing Ron Louks who left the manufacturer on Friday (May 7).
Louks was one of current CEO John Chen’s first appointments when he took over at the ailing Canadian vendor in 2014, but has now left the company, BlackBerry confirmed.
The manufacturer would not disclose why he had left the firm, who he joined from software company OpenNMS Group in January 2014.
Pini joined BlackBerry in 2012 as part of its acquisition of radio frequency business Paratek Microwave, where he was CEO. Prior to that, he spent 27 years at Motorola, including a stint as senior VP and CTO for its Mobile Devices Group.
During his time at Motorola, he oversaw the launch of Motorola’s best ever selling handset, the Motorola Razr, which was released in 2004 and sold more than 130 million devices.
His new role comes after a tough year for BlackBerry. It launched its first Android handset last year, the BlackBerry Priv, but in the fourth quarter, BlackBerry recognised revenue on 600,000 smartphones, down from 700,000 in the third quarter.
Mobile News has contacted BlackBerry and is awaiting comment.
