BlackBerry names former LiveOps CEO Marty Beard as COO

21 Jul 2014

Marty Beard, BlackBerry's new chief operating officer

Smartphone maker BlackBerry has appointed Marty Beard as its chief operating officer, filling the role for the first time since a management shakeup last November.

At that time, John Chen took over the company as CEO and COO Kristian Tear left the company.

Now Beard, whose appointment is effective immediately, will be responsible for cross-functional organisations, including marketing, BlackBerry 10 application development, customer care and quality. He has also been tasked with instituting best practices and processes.

Prior to joining BlackBerry, Beard served as chairman and CEO of cloud applications provider LiveOps, Inc.

Chen said BlackBerry continues to attract top talent.

“Marty brings extensive experience in operations, marketing and serving customers through the best technologies and processes available,” said Chen.

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

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