BlackBerry's chief operating officer, Kristian Tear, and chief marketing officer, Frank Boulben, have both left the company with immediate effect, while chief financial officer Brian Bidulka will leave at the end of the financial year, the firm has announced.
The move, which follows the replacement of CEO Thorsten Heins by John Chen, represents a major reshuffle at board level for the troubled Canadian smartphone producer.
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"I thank Kristian and Frank for their efforts on behalf of BlackBerry. I look forward to working more directly with the talented teams of engineers, and the sales and marketing teams around the world to facilitate the BlackBerry turn-around and to drive innovation," said Chen.
Bidulka will quit the role of CFO and be replaced by senior vice president James Yersh, who has been with BlackBerry since 2010.
"I also thank Brian for his eight years of dedicated service to BlackBerry. I look forward to working with James and his Finance team as we move forward, execute on our plans and deliver long-term value for our shareholders," Chen said of Bidulka, who'll continue at BlackBerry for the remainder of the fiscal year as a special adviser to the CEO.
Chen believes the changes at management level will benefit BlackBerry as it looks to re-establish itself as a major player in a mobile market that has come to be dominated by Apple and Google Android devices.
"BlackBerry has a strong cash position and continues, by a significant margin, to be the top provider of trusted and secure mobile device management solutions to enterprise customers around the world," said Chen.
"Building on this core strength, and in conjunction with these management changes, I will continue to align my senior management team and organisational structure, and refine the company's strategy to ensure we deliver the best devices, mobile security and device management through BES 10, provide multi-platform messaging solutions with BBM, and expand adoption of QNX embedded systems," he added.
Recent research by Gartner suggests BlackBerry's share of the smartphone market has slipped from five per cent in Q3 2012 to just two per cent in Q3 2013, with Microsoft's Windows smartphones benefiting from BlackBerry's decline.
It was recently reported that the Canadian government rejected a bid for BlackBerry from Chinese PC maker Lenovo. Instead, BlackBerry is seeking to raise $1bn to ensure that it has sufficient cashflow for the foreseeable future.
