[njblackberry]

Sounds well qualified to be to Chairman of a company that can't get out of its way.

Ms. Stymiest was front and center at the Annual General Meeting (where the faithful applauded every statement made and ate it up). That will probably be her last AGM.

[davidmcromano]

I was thinking the same thing myself. It remains a mystery where he may be.

[anon(5624621)]

Honestly, firing him now might be a stability issue, and firing him after a sale of the company would be costly as we know. Maybe it makes more sense as "constructive dismissal" - don't fire him, just put him in a corner and tell him to be quiet. Which means someone else would be holding the reins.

[cgk]

When was the last

1) Press release when he was mentioned?

2) Last public appearance?

In regards to 1 - outside of EC and the MD&A, the last mention of him in a PR was august 14th as far as I can tell, everything else has a quote from someone else.

In regards to 2 - ????????????????????????

[BroncoVAL]

Since Eric Schmidt's statement about tablet as the next big thing in enterprise's market (his analysis states that tablets are slowly replacing the pc in most of the daily tasks) Thorsten Heins - who said there was no place for a Blackberry tablet and that kind of devices would disappear soon... lol - is still trying to understand what the ex Google CEO means.
http://images5.fanpop.com/image/phot...41-500-286.gif

Posted via CB10

[trwrt]

I hope he's not sick.

[OMGitworks]

token white female, Toronto establishment. I think she got the chairmanship when Mike L and Jim B got caught stealing $250 MM form the shareholders, and needed some window dressing.

That probably is a little harsh but I did look at when she joined the board in 2007 the SP was $45 and when she became Chairwoman it was trading at 16. Today we are at 8....

Apparently when she was named there were questions:

RIM's New Chair Stymiest Defends R�sum�

By CAROLINE VAN HASSELT
Updated Jan. 24, 2012 12:42 p.m. ET
TORONTO-- Barbara Stymiest, Research In Motion Ltd.'s new chairwoman, steps into the job best known as the woman who fixed Canada's ailing flagship bourse and took it public.

Her stint as chief executive of the Toronto Stock Exchange, beleaguered by technology shortcomings at the time, won her a reputation as a turnaround artist and a force in the city's small and sometimes-clubby business and financial circles. But Monday, some analysts were already questioning whether Ms. Stymiest, a RIM director since 2007, would be able to make the sort of dramatic strategic changes that many investors have called for at the BlackBerry maker.

Ms. Stymiest "may lack the technical expertise and leadership skills required at RIM," wrote Michael Urlocker, an analyst at GMP Securities LP, in a research note.

Ms. Stymiest took the top job at RIM Sunday night, after the company announced its long-time co-chief executives and co-chairmen Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were stepping down.

Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Research In Motion's co-chief executives, turned over the top job late Sunday to a little-known company insider, Will Connors reports on Markets Hub.


The company will undergo a management shift under new CEO Thorsten Heins, but will consumers be swayed? Quentin Fottrell joins Markets Hub to discuss. (Photo: REUTERS/Michael Dalder)

In an interview Monday, Ms. Stymiest defended her experience—both in the boardroom and in the executive suite at several companies—and said that will help her oversee management and develop strategy at RIM.

"Not only have I been a director, but I've also been part of the management team" at other companies, she said.

RIM installed Thorsten Heins, previously a chief operating officer at the company, as its new chief executive. Mr. Heins has said he isn't planning any dramatic changes at RIM, banking on the roll-out of a new operating system later this year to keep the company competitive in the smartphone market.

Ms. Stymiest said Monday she backed that strategy, even as investors appeared to balk. Midday Monday, RIM shares were trading down some 7% in New York.

"The company has grown very fast and has had some bumps in the road," she said. "But the directors believe that the company has a very solid future with great products, good plans and a great new leader in place to take us to the next phase."

Ms. Stymiest, 55 years old, is a chartered accountant. At age 30, she became the youngest partner at Toronto accounting firm Clarkson Gordon. She later joined BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc.'s predecessor firm, Nesbitt Thomson, as its chief financial officer.

"She has very strong people skills, and strong financial skills and an ability to understand what drives a set of financial statements and the underlying metrics of the business," said Aubrey Baillie, the former chief operating officer of BMO Nesbitt Burns, who along with the firm's late CEO Brian Steck, hired her.

Ms. Stymiest joined the Toronto Stock Exchange board of governors in 1993, its first woman governor. She became a TSE vice chair and later its chairwoman. In 1999, at age 43, Ms. Stymiest became its CEO, charged with turning around, as one local paper described it at the time, a technological laggard "fit for a Third World backwater" and sprucing it up for sale.

She modernized the exchange, expanded it into bond and energy trading and folded in the Alberta and Vancouver exchanges. She took it, now called TMX Group Inc., X.T +1.14% public in 2002.

Royal Bank of Canada, RY -0.02% the country's largest bank by assets, hired Ms. Stymiest as chief operating officer in 2004. She revamped RBC's marketing campaign and made the bank's treasury functions more efficient, according to bank executives.

When the bank's CEO Gordon Nixon shuffled his leadership team in 2009, he eliminated the COO position to expand the number of his direct reports. Ms. Stymiest then became group head of strategy, treasury and corporate services. She left the bank in 2011 to focus on charities and corporate board work.

Write to Caroline Van Hasselt at [email protected]

Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article misstated the year Barbara Stymiest left Royal Bank of Canada.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...79083362990676

[birdman_38]

Maybe it makes more sense as "constructive dismissal" - don't fire him, just put him in a corner and tell him to be quiet. Which means someone else would be holding the reins.

That could very well be what's happening right now.

[KenFletch]

yah, except that is not what constructive dismissal is.

That is when you do things to make an employee miserable and quit instead of firing them to avoid paying severance.

(May involve sidelining them, demoting them, harassing them.)
No signs anyone is trying to force him out to avoid severance.

He really doesn't help when he speaks but has always done the boards bidding. Won't be fired.

[anon(5624621)]

yah, except that is not what constructive dismissal is.

That is when you do things to make an employee miserable and quit instead of firing them to avoid paying severance.

(May involve sidelining them, demoting them, harassing them.)
No signs anyone is trying to force him out to avoid severance.

He really doesn't help when he speaks but has always done the boards bidding. Won't be fired.

Putting him in a corner *would* be sidelining him, don't you think? But point taken.

[NotGoodIMO]

Exactly. That's very telling.

"The BlackBerry Team" is super generic. It takes away from the credibility of the letter. You'd think at least Barbara Stymiest would have signed it.

"the Blackberry Team" which will soon be owned by Microsoft or may be Google.

[anon(8080272)]

It's clear that Thorsten Heins is a fictitious CGI character, motion captured and voiced by Mel Gibson.

Ms. Stymeist's character, I suspect, is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Either way, BB's CGI artists need to get busy and release some Thor footage; the masses are getting restless!

[birdman_38]

It's clear that Thorsten Heins is a fictitious CGI character, motion captured and voiced by Mel Gibson.

Mel Gibson does a wonderful German accent!

[Branta]

yah, except that is not what constructive dismissal is.

That is when you do things to make an employee miserable and quit instead of firing them to avoid paying severance.

(May involve sidelining them, demoting them, harassing them.)

Exactly.

He really doesn't help when he speaks but has always done the boards bidding. Won't be fired.

That is the most telling and accurate comment I have seen about Heins making his performance targets. The board (ok, the sub committee or whatever, appointed by the board) set compensation packages including the notorious Golden Parachute for Heins "if he is removed from office as a consequence of change of ownership". That clearly indicates that he was tasked to arrange a buy-out, either explicitly or so strongly implied by the terms of the package that he could have no doubt about the wishes of the boardroom. The indications so far suggest he has followed his instructions perfectly.

Nothing this big in a company happens without board approval. At this stage the board has done everything possible to make a buyout happen at a price acceptable to the board's preferred bidder, from the "failed" marketing to the "unfortunate" timing of strategic announcements which killed revenue streams and crashed stock prices, followed by deception, and neutered product launches. There are too many coincidences to be coincidence.

Now... how will this all end? Probably not the way many CrackBerry members expect. I have my suspicions about the script options for the closing scenes of the last act in this drama, but it would be highly improper to express these opinions in public forum. One thing is certain, Heins does not want to preside over the closure and winding up of the company. That wouldn't trigger his bonus.

[sosumi11]

When Apple screwed it up with the maps the CEO signed the apology letter.

This was because the guy responsible for Maps, Scott Forstall, refused to sign the apology.

Apple's Scott Forstall ousted over Maps apology -- WSJ

[birdman_38]

This was because the guy responsible for Maps, Scott Forstall, refused to sign the apology.

Perhaps Thorsten refused to sign the reassurance letter.

[anon(8080272)]

Perhaps Thorsten refused to sign the reassurance letter.

To misquote Eric Clapton, "That'll go down like a Golden Parachute."

Led Zeppelin is dead; long live Led Zeppelin!

[kfh227]

He is...until November 4th when he'll cash in close to 60Milion$ fat bonus for successfully selling the company for peanuts and change.

People need to stop saying this. He has a golden parachute clause. If he is not let go, he gets nothing.

Posted via CB10

[STV0726]

People need to stop saying this. He has a golden parachute clause. If he is not let go, he gets nothing.

Posted via CB10

Probably meaning laid off specifically, not fired or quit.

-STV on Z10STL100-3/10.1.0.4780 TMO US

[JonCBK]

He probably is staying low because he is engaging in discussions with potential buyers. If BBRY is getting broken up, then Heins is currently negotiating several and maybe a dozen deals, many of significant size.

A billion dollar acquisition is hard, Heins might be doing half a dozen right now.

Posted via CB10

[birdman_38]

If BBRY is getting broken up, then Heins is currently negotiating several and maybe a dozen deals, many of significant size.

A billion dollar acquisition is hard, Heins might be doing half a dozen right now.

If he is, he's not doing it all on his own.

[PaulPaul49]

In the UK the chancellor of the exchequer. Does the same before a budget

Posted via CB10

[cgk]

In the UK the chancellor of the exchequer. Does the same before a budget

Posted via CB10

Say what? Run that past me again - the Chancellor of the Exchequer can not comment directly on the budget before he presents it to parliament but he doesn't go into hiding for over three months...