Mike Lazaridis
Mihalis "Mike" Lazaridis ( Greek Μιχάλης Λαζαρίδης ), OC , O.Ont (born March 14, 1961 in Istanbul , Turkey ) is the founder of Research In Motion (now Blackberry ) and Chancellor of the University of Waterloo .
Education and career
Born in Turkey to the son of Greeks , Lazaridis was five when he moved to Windsor , Canada with his parents in 1966 . At the age of twelve, he won an award for reading every book on physics in his school's library. In 1979 he began studying engineering with a minor in computer science at the University of Waterloo. In 1984 he dropped out two months before graduation because he accepted a $ 600,000 contract with General Motors to develop a control display system for network computers. With that money, a $ 15,000 loan from his parents, and a small government grant, he, Mike Barnstijn and Douglas Fregin founded RIM, the Canadian company that designs and manufactures the Blackberry cellphone.
In January 2012 he stepped down as Co- CEO of RIM. He did this after a series of wrong decisions, product delays, slumps in profits and the company's loss of market share. In 2014 he was elected to the Royal Society .
He is married to Ophelia Lazaridis. They have two children together.
voluntary work
- He founded the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics with $ 100 million personal and $ 10 million capital from RIM partners Jim Balsillie and Doug Fregin.
- He and his wife donated a total of $ 50.3 million to the University of Waterloo.
Lazaridis is the winner of the Technology Oscars for an innovation that makes film editing easier.
Web links
swell
- Ralf Spiller and Georg Weishaupt: Leaders at the Top - a portrait of business leaders . Redline Economy, ISBN 3-636-01341-6 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Suzanne Ridgway: Mike Lazaridis and RIM's Blackberry. ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Change of leadership at Blackberry. In: Handelsblatt from January 23, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lazaridis, Mike |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lazaridis, Mihalis; Λαζαρίδης, Μιχάλης (Greek) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 14, 1961 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Istanbul |