Skip Navigation

BlackBerry Board of Directors

Richard Lynch

Mr. Lynch is Chair of the Board of Directors. He has served as a director of the Company since February 2013. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from Lowell Technological Institute (now University of Massachusetts) and post-graduate executive education from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University. Mr. Lynch is President of FB Associates, LLC, which provides advisory and consulting services at the intersection of technology, marketing and business operations. Prior to his current role, Mr. Lynch served as Executive Vice-President & Chief Technology Officer for Verizon Communications and Verizon Wireless. He is a Life Fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. Mr. Lynch previously served as Chairman of Ribbon Communications and as a director of Ruckus Wireless.  He has also served on a number of professional organizations including the GSM Association, the CDMA Development Group, the Federal Communications Commission Technical Advisory Committee and the Communications Security Reliability and Interoperability Council. Mr. Lynch has been honored with the President's Award by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association and has also been inducted into the Wireless History Foundation's Hall of Fame.

 

 

Laurie Smaldone Alsup

Dr. Smaldone Alsup has served as a director of the Company since June 2015 and is a member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee of the Board of Directors. She has a BA from Fordham College and an MD from Yale University, where she completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Medical Oncology. Dr. Smaldone Alsup is SVP Regulatory of NDA Group, a leading drug development consulting company, which was acquired in 2023 by SSI Strategy.  She previously served as President and Chief Scientific Officer of PharmApprove and as Chief Executive Officer of Phytomedics, prior to which she held clinical and regulatory leadership roles at Bristol Myers Squibb, including Senior Vice President of Global Regulatory Science and Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Risk Management.  Dr. Smaldone Alsup is a director of Theravance Biopharma, Inc., Arvinas, Inc. and Kinnate Biopharma Inc., and previously served as a director of Pardes Biosciences, Inc. and Kalobios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  She has also served with numerous professional and charitable organizations including the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Conference Board Strategic Risk Management Council and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

 

Philip Brace

Philip Brace has served as a director of the Company since February 2024 and is a member of the Compensation, Nomination and Governance Committee of the Board of Directors.  Mr. Brace has an extensive background in the IoT, semiconductor, server and storage industries. His roles over the past 3 decades include a wide array of functions, including software, hardware, engineering, marketing, and sales. Most recently, from July 2021 to January 2023, Mr. Brace served as President and CEO of leading Canadian wireless communications designer, Sierra Wireless Inc., where he led the company to a successful acquisition by Semtech Corporation.  Prior to this, Mr. Brace served as Executive Vice President at Veritas Technologies, President of Seagate Technology’s Cloud Systems and Electronic Solutions, Executive Vice President at LSI Corporation, and General Manager at Intel Corporation. Mr. Brace is also a member of the Board of Directors at Lantronix Inc. and Inseego Corp.  Mr. Brace holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Sacramento. He has also participated in the Stanford University Directors’ Consortium.

 

 

Mike Daniels

Mr. Daniels has served as a director of the Company since October 2014 and is Chair of the Compensation, Nomination and Governance Committee of the Board of Directors. Mr. Daniels currently serves as Chairman of CACI International and as a director of Two Six Technologies. Mr. Daniels also currently serves as a director of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. He also leads the National Advisory Board of the American Enterprise Institute Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy. Mr. Daniels previously held various senior management positions at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) from 1986 to 2004. While at SAIC, Mr. Daniels identified and acquired Network Solutions and served as Chairman from 1995 until 2000 when the company was acquired by VeriSign. Mr. Daniels was Chairman and CEO of Mobile 365 from 2005 until the sale of the company to Sybase in 2006. He then served as a director of Sybase from 2007 to 2010. He has also served as Chairman of GlobalLogic, Invincea and the Logistics Management Institute and as a director of VeriSign, Apogen Technologies and Telcordia Technologies.

 

 

Lisa Disbrow

Ms. Disbrow has served as a director of the Company since August 2019 and as Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Committee since September 2021. She has a BA from the University of Virginia, an MA from The George Washington University and an MS from The National War College in National Strategy. Ms. Disbrow currently serves on the President’s Export Council and is a Commissioner on the Congressional Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution Reform Commission. She is also the Chair of the NobleReach Foundation, as well as a director of CACI International Inc, Mercury Systems, Inc., and SparkCognition, Inc. In addition, Ms. Disbrow is as a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, the Vice Chair of the National Defense Industrial Association, and a director of the Wounded Warrior Project. Previously, she served as the Senate-confirmed Under Secretary of the United States Air Force. Ms. Disbrow also served as Acting Secretary of the Air Force and was the Senate-confirmed chief financial officer of the Air Force, as the Assistant Secretary for Financial Management and Comptroller. She retired from the Air Force in 2008 as a colonel after 23 years of active and reserve duty.

 

 

John Giamatteo

Mr. Giamatteo is BlackBerry’s Chief Executive Officer and has served as director of the Company since December 2023.  John brings to BlackBerry over 30 years of experience in P&L, go-to-market, marketing, customer relationships, and customer success with global high technology companies.  He came to BlackBerry from McAfee where he was President and Chief Revenue Officer for over six years.  Prior to that John served as Chief Operating Officer at AVG Technologies, a leading provider of internet and mobile security. He also held leadership positions with Solera Holdings, RealNetworks, Inc., and Nortel Corporation.

John holds an MBA and Bachelor of Accounting from St. John’s University in New York.

 

 

 

Wayne Wouters

Mr. Wouters has served as a director of the Company since October 2015 and is a member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee of the Board of Directors. Mr. Wouters has an honours bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a master’s degree in economics from Queen’s University. He is currently Strategic and Policy Advisor to McCarthy Tétrault LLP and a director of Champion Iron Limited, Canadian Utilities Limited and Foran Mining Corporation. From 2009 to 2014, Mr. Wouters was the Clerk of the Privy Council of Canada and, in that capacity, held the roles of Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Public Service. Prior to his tenure as Clerk, Mr. Wouters was Secretary of the Treasury Board of Canada and served in deputy ministerial and other senior positions in the Canadian public service. Mr. Wouters has received numerous awards, including Honorary Doctorates of Laws from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the André Mailhot Award for lifetime achievement from the United Way Canada. He was inducted by the Prime Minister as a member of the Privy Council in 2014 and was invested into the Order of Canada as an officer in 2017.