| The two persons behind Research in Motion, Mike | | | | Lazaridis is pure Greek whose family left Greece for |
| Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are credited to be responsible | | | | Canada in 1966. His father woked for a local Chrysler |
| for bringing the BlackBerry to the market and into our | | | | automotive factory and his mother is a seamstress. |
| lives. | | | | Lazaridis was an intelligent child with special interests in |
| Balsillie serves as Chairman of RIM and co - chief | | | | reading and science. An electric train given to him as a |
| executive officer. He is primarily responsible for the | | | | child sparked his imagination and since then started |
| financial side of RIM's operations. Born to a working | | | | building rockets and radios and tried on chemistry |
| class family in Seaforth, Ontario Canada, Balsilie has | | | | experiments. |
| been seen to be keen on business and athletics as a | | | | By high school, he won in a science fair for coming up |
| young child. In his teen years, he had numerous | | | | with a solar powered water heater. A mentor at |
| summer jobs as camp manager, trailer park | | | | school once told him that whoever puts together |
| maintenance man, and manager of a painting company | | | | wireless and computer technology will soon be an |
| that took in students as employees. He also distributes | | | | important person in history. This left an indelible imprint |
| newspapers on school days in the morning. | | | | in his mind and soon he started working on wireless |
| Balsilie was really keen on doing business and entered | | | | and computer technologies itself. |
| the University of Toronto's trinity college to study | | | | After skipping school to start building his dream of a |
| commerce. He also pursued graduate studies at | | | | wireless and computer technology empire, he landed a |
| Harvard and Wilfrid Laurier University. Prior to joining | | | | contract with General Motor for industry automation. |
| RIM, he was chief financial officer for Sutherland and | | | | For years, his company survived form one contract to |
| Schultz in Kitchener, Ontario. | | | | another and he managed to let it grow. Knowing full |
| Sutherland and Schulz is a small technology company | | | | well that finances are not his best suit, he invited Balsillie |
| that created products that allowed computers to be | | | | into the company to take of that side of the business. |
| linked. Before becoming chief financial officer, he was | | | | He continues with his experiments, this time no longer |
| vice - president of finance for the said company. He | | | | with rockets and radios but with wireless electronics. |
| joined RIM in 1992 already a seasoned business | | | | With his technological skills and know-how, and with |
| executive and that made him an ideal head of the | | | | Basillie providing the financial savvy for fund raising and |
| company as the other co - CEO wants to | | | | business development, RIM came up with a number of |
| concentrate on the technical side of things. | | | | innovative products that proved to be a boon to the |
| The other half of the duo is Mike Lazaridis. He is the | | | | company. All these culminated with the rise of the |
| original founder of RIM who quit his electrical | | | | BlackBerry, which has become almost every person's |
| engineering studies to directly go into business providing | | | | vital companion everywhere and anytime. |
| technology development services to industries. | | | | |