RIM hires key marketing, operations executives

RIM has appointed Kristian Tear as its new chief operating officer and Frank Boulben as its new chief marketing officer as it moves to rejuvenate its management team.

 

[Tear and] Boulben are telecom industry veterans with over 20 years of experience each. The former has spent much of his career at Sony Ericsson, while the latter has worked for several European telcos before his most recent stint at LightSquared.

 

On the face of it, filling these two roles is a good move. It was critical that RIM fill these key positions, since marketing and operations are two of the areas where it has really struggled in the past couple of years.

 

RIM desperately needs leaders with a proven track record in achieving results in operations and marketing, who have the pedigree to awe a market that is increasingly deaf to RIM’s exploits. But bringing in key people from one of the less successful device vendors (Sony Ericsson) and a struggling carrier (LightSquared) is unlikely to change that.