A Letter to Our Customers

As a global community, we are facing unprecedented and uncertain times. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted life as we have known it. As we fight this fight together, I wanted to reach out and update you on the steps BlackBerry is taking to contribute to the solution.

Our priority remains the community we serve, including our employees, our customers, and our partners.

We have asked all employees to refrain from travelling and to work from home, to help protect everyone’s health and safety. This transition has been smooth and we continue to deliver 24x7x365 security, availability, and service to you.

We are ensuring every organization around the world has access to the same secure connectivity tools BlackBerry employees are equipped with to work remotely, including BlackBerry UEM, BlackBerry Desktop, BlackBerry 2FA, BlackBerry SecuSUITE, BBM-E and BlackBerry PROTECT. The solutions have been made available free of charge for 60 days, enabling businesses to continue their operations as they take steps to contain the spread of COVID-19.

We are using BlackBerry AtHoc to keep up to date on the status and health of our employees. We have deployed the same emergency notification and situation management solution to state and local governments to coordinate their response and communicate with citizens. This software has also been made available to you and any other organization that requires it, at no cost for 60 days.

Furthermore, we have turned our events into virtual events to enable everyone to participate and engage in the community while following social distancing guidelines.

Recent weeks have demonstrated how connected we are to one another and the importance of community during challenging times. I am thankful to you and everyone else who is contributing to the solution, especially the selfless people working tirelessly on the front lines, and grateful that BlackBerry is able to play a part.

As always, we have your back and are here to support you, your teams and your business as needed.

If you are aware of others that our technology can be of service to at this time, please contact us.

Sincerely,

John Chen

Executive Chairman & CEO, BlackBerry

About John Chen

John Chen is Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry. Appointed in November 2013, John led BlackBerry’s turnaround stabilizing the company’s financial position, ensuring its viability, and pivoting its operations from consumer hardware to enterprise software. Today the company takes advantage of the current growth opportunities in IoT and Cybersecurity and is pioneering the convergence of these two markets.

John is a distinguished business leader and proven turnaround executive with over 40 years of engineering and management experience. Prior to joining BlackBerry, John served as Chairman and CEO of Sybase Inc. where he re-invented the company and achieved 55 consecutive quarters of profitability during his 15-year tenure.

Recognized as a thought leader and as a respected voice in foreign policy, John has testified before Congress on U.S.–China trade relations and was appointed by U.S. President George W. Bush to serve on the President's Export Council. In 2006, he was appointed co-chair of the Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee. Additionally, John chaired the U.S.-China Policy Advisory Roundtable for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), served on the Board of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations since 2012, and has been a member of the Committee of 100 since 1997 and its Chairman from 2009-2011.

John graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). John has an honorary professorship from Shanghai University, and honorary doctorates from San Jose State University, City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. John has received awards from the U.S.-Asia Institute, the U.S.-China Policy Foundation, the California-Asia Business Council, and the U.S.-Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation.

John served on the Board of Directors for The Walt Disney Company (2004-2019) and Wells Fargo & Co. (2006-2018) and as a trustee of Caltech (2008-2022). John is an Advisory Board member of the US Chamber China Center. He is also active in the not-for-profit community, and is a board member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, member of CFR, national trustee of The First Tee and Governor of the San Francisco Symphony.

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