With the announcement of Thorsten Heins taking the top job of President/CEO of RIM, makers of the BlackBerry, people from all over the world started clamoring for news and information about who the new big man is. After 20 years of manning the Canadian-based company, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazardis made way for the company’s Chief Operating Officer of Product Engineering to take over the big role.

Perhaps the big question here is, who is Thorsten Heins to take over this demanding role at the current state that RIM is in? If we may recall, 2011 has not been the best year for the company with tides of issues still rocking its boat. And perhaps it goes without saying that whoever gets that top position bears much responsibility in putting the company back in tiptop shape. Quite surprisingly enough, Lazardis, Balsillie and the rest of the board found it fitting that Mr. Heins’ four-year tenure at RIM deserves this big title.

As users of the brand (so with million others across the globe), whatever the man decides on results in how the BlackBerry technology could change or improve the way we communicate with our loved ones, connect with our friends, deal with our clients, or our bosses. With that, let’s go a little further down history and get familiar with the man who will soon affect our lives and relationships one way or the other.

Thorsten Heins was born in December 1957 in Germany. It is good to note that at 54, the CEO does not look his age. Perhaps his youthful look can be accounted to his active lifestyle, engaging in physical activities such as bicycling, motorcycling (in which case he owns a BMW motorcycle) and hiking, to name a few.

Mr. Heins was educated in the University of Hanover in Germany with a Master’s Degree in Physics and Science. While at school, Heins met his wife, also a physicist, with whom he has a daughter and a son.

Right after university, in 1984, Mr. Heins was taken by the big German phone company Siemens, where he started out working with customer service, then with sales and product management, finally landing a post as chief technology officer. His long-running experience at the company gave him extensive knowledge in all areas of communication including Enterprise Communication and Consumer Electronic Devices.

After 23 years, Mr. Heins joined the iconic company RIM in 2007 where he first took the post as Senior Vice President for the Handheld Business Unit. And about 4 years after that, he rose up the ladder taking the role of Chief Operating Officer for both the Hardware and Software Product Engineering, which oversaw the BlackBerry product portfolio worldwide.

Finally, by the 22nd of January 2012, Lazardis, Balsillie and the rest of the board appointed Mr. Heins to the top position to man the company as it tries to get through the turbulent past year.

His estimated Annual Calculated Compensation is 1.9 million US dollars.

In his recent interviews, Mr Heins plans to deliver more devices that will cater more especially to consumers, through innovative marketing strategies

Perhaps it is well and good that RIM has decided to shake up the executive line up with Mr Heins’ promotion as CEO this early in the year. With the news of the Playbook OS 2 to be released in February, rumors of additional tablets out in the wild, and the next-generation BlackBerry handsets now in the pipeline, a new CEO for a reviving company bodes well for consumers and investors alike. Only time will tell when the new products and services will put the company back to the arena where it was once the star-player.

**Note: In making this article, I have not found a great deal of literature comprehensive enough to lay down all the nitty gritty details about the big man. So I have gone through quite a few web articles and sources to put together the information above. Credits go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk