Dr Sandeep Chennakeshu to lead BlackBerry’s innovative technology unit

Canadian telecom giant BlackBerry Ltd has combined its potentially high growth assets including its huge patent portfolio, forming a new business unit BlackBerry Technology Solutions (BTS) and appointed Dr Sandeep Chennakeshu, a wireless industry veteran, as its president.

BTS includes embedded software QNX, internet of things application platform Project Ion, cryptography applications Certicom and RF antenna tuning Paratek besides BlackBerry's extensive patent portfolio.

BlackBerry executive chairman and CEO John Chen said, "I am very pleased that Sandeep has joined BlackBerry to lead BTS.''

QNX, Certicom and Paratek are strategic and technically innovative assets with significant potential to address the much wider global markets for secure, reliable communications and embedded applications.

Project Ion is an application platform that enables secure and collaborative machine-to-machine communication required by the growing number of end-to-end internet applications.

Besides, BlackBerry has a global portfolio of 44,000 patents which is valued between $2 to $3 billion.

''Combining all these assets into a single business unit led by Sandeep will create operational synergies and new revenue streams, furthering our turnaround strategy,'' Chen said.

Prior to the posting, Sandeep Chennakeshu served as president of Ericsson Mobile Platform and CTO of Sony-Ericsson. He has over 25 years of experience in research, product development, IP creation/licensing and general management in wireless, electronics and semiconductor industry and has 73 patents to his credit.

Chennakeshu holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Bangalore University, a postgraduate diploma in industrial management from the India Institute of Science, Bangalore, a master of science in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University.

BlackBerry acquired QNX Software Systems in 2010, an Ottawa-based a developer of technology for automotive industry, including dashboard information and entertainment systems that connect directly with a driver's mobile phone.