Thorsten Heins
President and CEO, Research In Motion
Thorsten Heins was named President and Chief Executive Officer at Research In Motion
in January 2012. He previously served as Chief Operating Officer, Product Engineering,
overseeing the BlackBerry smartphone portfolio world-wide.
Prior to joining RIM in 2007, Thorsten held several positions in the wireless arena
including the Chief Technology Officer of Siemens' Communications Division and several
general management positions in Hardware and Software businesses.
Thorsten holds a master's degree in Science and Physics from the University of Hannover
in Germany. Thorsten also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Canadian
German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Inc.
Alec Saunders
Vice President, Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development, QNX Software Systems
Limited
As vice president of developer relations at QNX, Alec is responsible for winning
the hearts and minds of mobile developers, and for building an ecosystem of software
applications for BlackBerry® OS handhelds, the BlackBerry® PlayBook™
tablet, and future RIM products built upon the QNX operating system. Prior to joining
QNX, Alec co-founded Iotum, an award-winning communications startup; served as vice
president of marketing at Versatel Networks; and headed up the marketing efforts
for several key initiatives at Microsoft, including the launch of Internet Explorer
in 1995.
Alec was an early adopter of social media as a branding, awareness, and SEO strategy.
His award-winning blog (2002-present) is recognized on most of the Top 10/Top 100
lists for telecommunications and VoIP blogs.
Christopher Smith
Vice President, BlackBerry Application Platform and Tools, Research In Motion
Christopher Smith is Vice President of BlackBerry Application Platform and Tools
at Research in Motion. Running the team of developers, Christopher has R&D and
engineering responsibility for the BlackBerry Development Platform portfolio including
Developer Tools, Java Platform, Web Platform and partner solutions such as SAP,
IBM, Lotus, facebook, TicketMaster and others worldwide. Chris joined RIM in 2001
and has held senior technical leadership roles in BlackBerry Retail Software, BlackBerry
Infrastructure and the Advanced Technologies Group prior to joining the BlackBerry
Platform organization.
Chris has spent the last nine years building groundbreaking mobile solutions and
has developed a deep and broad understanding of the mobile landscape across device,
server and infrastructure components. Prior to joining RIM Chris lead development
of the emobility Access Server (e*Touch) at Nortel Networks. He was also a member
of the first Internet/Java practice at IBM Global Services in Stockholm, Sweden.
Chris has studied at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Waterloo
in his native Canada. Chris is a very experienced and lively speaker with keynote
appearances at major events such as the Mobile World Congress, Wharton Business
Technology Conference, and The Developer Conference.
