BlackBerry and Canada: Decades of Trust Leads to Expanded Partnership

Headquartered in Waterloo, Ont., BlackBerry has been a trusted partner of the Government of Canada since our founding almost 40 years ago. Earlier this month, I was pleased to announce that our partnership is expanding, demonstrated by a multi-year agreement that will allow BlackBerry technology to serve employees of all departments and agencies across Canada’s federal government.

The expanded partnership gives the Government of Canada a bespoke BlackBerry Cloud, and extends and expands its use of BlackBerry^® UEM, BlackBerry^® UEM Dark Site, and BlackBerry SecuSUITE^®, to enable the daily operations of departments and agencies across the government, reliably and securely.

Alignment Between BlackBerry and the Government of Canada

BlackBerry has a rich history as a technology industry pioneer. We first changed the way the world lives and works with the BlackBerry smartphone, followed by the first mobile enterprise email and the first mobile instant messaging solutions. More recently, in alignment with Canada’s artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, BlackBerry developed the software that leads the world’s AI cybersecurity industry. We are also one of the first signatories to Canada's landmark Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems.

BlackBerry contributes to Canada in many ways beyond technology innovation, including talent development, job creation, national security, and more. Having hired and developed hundreds of thousands of employees in Canada over the years, we are pleased that Canada is today considered a world leader in technology talent, and proud of our role in fostering that achievement. Partnering with Canada’s leading universities for additional research and development projects also remains high on our agenda.

In addition, we share the Government of Canada’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions, having achieved our own carbon-neutral status in 2021. The technology sector is responsible for 2% to 3% of global carbon emissions and digital transformation has the potential to decouple economic growth from increased carbon emissions.

We are proud to partner with the Government of Canada and are pleased to expand our role in furthering Canada’s advantage in the digital economy for future generations.

Learn More

Last week we were joined by thought leaders from around the world, including Government of Canada executives, at BlackBerry Summit. Together, we revealed how IT, IoT, and Cybersecurity are key to the future and what trust means in the digital era. The sessions are available for you to watch on-demand, here.

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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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