The Blackberry logo on an office building in Waterloo, Ont.Andrew Ryan/The Canadian Press
BlackBerry Ltd. chief financial officer Steve Rai has left the company, the latest in a series of high-level exits by loyalists of former chief executive officer John Chen since his departure from the Canadian technology icon last November.
Mr. Rai has been replaced by Tim Foote, the chief financial officer of BlackBerry’s cybersecurity division, the company said Monday. Mr. Foote, who has also led investor relations and international finance operations for BlackBerry, joined the Waterloo, Ont.-based company in 2015 when it acquired his former employer, Good Technology.
BlackBerry announced two other internal promotions. Jay Chai has been elevated to chief accounting officer after serving as vice-president and corporate controller for the past five years. Fraser Deziel, a 15-year company veteran in the finance department, will replace Mr. Chai as corporate controller.
Mr. Rai, previously corporate controller with PMC-Sierra Inc., joined BlackBerry in 2014 in a similar capacity, a year after Mr. Chen became CEO. At the time BlackBerry was contending with a rapidly dwindling smartphone business and soon began to transform into a pure software company that is today focused on cybersecurity, connected cars and mobile device management for corporations and governments. Mr. Rai became CFO in 2019.
During Mr. Rai’s tenure as CFO, BlackBerry completely exited the smartphone business and built up and then sold a lucrative business of extracting payments from other companies for alleged use of its smartphone-era intellectual property.
But the company’s stock has also plumbed multidecade lows as its cybersecurity and connected car (or internet of things) businesses delivered weaker-than-expected revenues. Last year, BlackBerry announced it would split itself in two, but abandoned a planned spinoff of the connected car business into a separate public company when cybersecurity president John Giamatteo was named Mr. Chen’s permanent successor in December.
Other senior executives closely associated with Mr. Chen have left the company since his departure, including human resources chief Nita White-Ivy, chief marketing officer Mark Wilson and engineering executive vice-president Billy Ho, all of whom had worked for Mr. Chen when he led California enterprise cybersecurity company Sybase Inc.
Another female former senior executive who was a favourite of Mr. Chen and rapidly promoted up the ranks during his tenure, according to a recent court filing by BlackBerry, was terminated last December by interim CEO Richard Lynch, days before Mr. Giamatteo was named as CEO. The former executive, identified in court filings only as Jane Doe, is suing the company and Mr. Giamatteo for sexual harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination.
On Friday, Justice Sallie Kim of U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, struck three of the plaintiff’s eight claims at the company’s request, writing in a ruling that the plaintiff has provided “little, if any substance” to back her allegations of a hostile work environment and demonstrate pervasive or severe harassment that altered the conditions of her employment.
Justice Kim has given Jane Doe until Aug. 19 to file an amended complaint to add facts or details that support her allegations of harassment and discrimination.