Mike Lazaridis

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Mike Lazaridis, OC, FRS (born March 14, 1961) is a Canadian businessman who co-founded Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited), the company that created and manufactured the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. He has gone on to become a major supporter of Canadian academic physics and an investor in quantum computing technologies. While still a student at the University of Waterloo (UW), Lazaridis responded to a 1984 call for proposals from General Motors, and after winning a GM contract, he left university, and with those and other funds, he, Mike Barnstijn, and Douglas Fregin launched Research in Motion (RIM). RIM first developed an award-winning barcode technology for use in the film industry; using those profits it researched wireless data transmission, leading to introduction of BlackBerry wireless mobile devices (1999–2002). Lazaridis would serve in various positions for RIM and BlackBerry, including co-CEO and co-chair of its board (1984–2012). After a period of charitable and...

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