Thorsten Heins appointed as RIM's new CEO

Research in Motion has appointed Thorsten Heins as its new CEO.

The long standing co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down, paving way for the 54-year-old.

Heins has been working at RIM for four years as the Chief Operating Officer, Product Engineering, overseeing the BlackBerry smartphone portfolio world-wide.

According to the RIM website, Heins has 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.

In a RIM video, Heins sounded optimistic about the future of Blackberry and was excited about the BlackBerry 10 platform. He also hinted at the need for getting better at execution while not compromising the innovation.

He said: 'never lose the innovation spirit, but also make sure that once we say a product is defined, we move decisively into execution mode and get the product done in good quality, on time and at good cost.'

He also added: 'we need to get a bit more disciplined in our processes… sometimes we innovate too much while we are building a product'.

Will the new Blackberry devices and Heins be able to revive the company? We will soon find out.

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