RIM Exec Credited With Ramping Up Recent Production Retires

Research In Motion's COO Larry Conlee

Research In Motion said at its annual meeting on Tuesday that Larry Conlee, the company’s chief operating officer for product development and manufacturing, will retire at the end of the summer after helping to lead the BlackBerry’s push into the consumer market.

Conlee, 61, has been at RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) for eight years, and before that worked at Motorola (NYSE: MOT) for about 20 years, where he was a senior manager in its cellphone and paging groups, the WSJ reports. The company did not name a successor, but Co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said Conlee will stick around long enough to ensure a smooth transistion.

In the last year, Conlee led the production of five new devices, including RIM’s first touch-screen BlackBerry, and less enterprise-focused devices, like the Pearl, Flip and Curve.

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