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MD of troubled BlackBerry quits after just months in the job.
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MD of Research In Motion Australia, Ray Gillenwater, has left the job after just three months in the role “to pursue other opportunities,” according to a statement.
The departure at senior management level is just the latest casualty RIM has suffered in recent times – RIM Co- CEO’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were forced from their top job in January, while David Yach, CTO Software and Jim Rowan, COO of Global Operations, are also other casualties this year.
Previous RIM Australia MD Adele Beachley resigned suddently in February for reasons that have never been explained.
Following inquiries into the reasons behind her departure, legal action was threatened against the Australian Financial Review and Channel News.
ChannelNews was told that a former consumer marketing executive at RIM had complained about “harrasment” at the Company
. We were also told that an internal investigation took place and that an outside legal Company was called in to assist with the allegations.
Beachley was replaced by Ray Gillenwater, formerly RIM Philippines country director.
But yesterday RIM confirmed Gillenwater will be replaced by current marketing director Matthew Ball, a former Vodafone and Microsoft Australia executive who joined RIM last year.
“RIM is pleased to confirm that Matthew Ball has accepted the post of managing director for Australia & New Zealand. Matthew has a wealth of experience in the technology and telecommunications sector and, before this appointment, he held the role of director of country marketing for Australia at RIM.”
The BlackBerry platform has witnessed a severe decline in recent times in the advent of seemingly ‘cooler’ rivals iPhone and Android and saw its marketshare in the important US market fall by almost 4% to 12.3% in Q1 this year – compared to Android’s 51% and Apple iOS 30% share.
BlackBerry recently began a fightback “Be Bold” ad campaign, calling on smartphone users to shun others platforms in order to get things done.
