BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), previously known as Research In Motion, was co-founded by Mike Lazaridis, who now have a business school named for him in Waterloo, Ontario, says a report from The Globe and Mail. The region has ambitions of becoming a global player in technology innovation, and Lazaridis, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, has already made major investments there.
Lazaridis committed to foster talents
The Wilfrid Laurier University in an event on Tuesday, in Waterloo, named its school of business and economics, and a new $103-million campus building for the school and university’s math department, for Lazaridis.
In spring last year, Lazaridis pledged $20-million for a new technology-focused management institute at the Laurier business school. The Ontario government has also pledged $15-million. Laurier’s ‘strong’ business school impressed Lazaridis, who has been associated with the University of Waterloo since long.
University’s co-operative education program was also lauded by Lazaridis. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) co-founder also appreciated the hard work and focus of the business school’s dean Michael Kelly for imparting high-tech management skills to the graduates.
BlackBerry co-founder and ‘Quantum Computing’
Talking of his experience with the startups, Lazaridis said “We realized it didn’t matter how complex the technology was or the innovation was. You still needed a high level of business skills to take advantage of it [the technology] and be able to scale it globally.”
Lazaridis has lofty aspirations for the Waterloo region. He sees this area as the ‘Quantum Valley” of Canada, and want to make this region a global player in a new industrial revolution. In 2013, Lazaridis along with Doug Fregin, also a co-founder of Research In Motion, created the Waterloo-based Quantum Valley Investment Fund with an aim to encourage firms related to quantum physics and quantum computing.
Mr. Lazaridis founded Research in Motion in 1984, at that time he was a student at the University of Waterloo. Research in Motion, which was seen as a pioneer in smartphones, dominated the market once with its BlackBerry devices. The name Research in Motion was later changed to BlackBerry in 2013.
On Tuesday, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) shares closed up 1.65% at $7.40. Year to date, the stock is down almost 33% while in the last one-year, they are down 29%.
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