Mr. John Chen, Executive Chair and CEO, Blackberry Ltd. in Conversation with Amber Kanwar

The Empire Club Presents

Mr. John Chen, Executive Chair and CEO, Blackberry Limited, in Conversation with Amber Kanwar

September 26, 2016

Welcome Address, by Colin Lynch, Vice President, Strategy Growth – Executive Office at Greystone Managed Investments and First Vice President of the Empire Club

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. From the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, welcome, to the 113th season of the Empire Club of Canada. For those of you just joining us through either our webcast or our podcast or on Rogers TV, welcome, to the meeting.

Before our distinguished speakers are introduced today, it gives me great pleasure to introduce our Head Table Guests. I would ask each guest to rise for a brief moment and be seated as your name is called. Please, hold your applause until the final Head Table Guest is introduced.

Head Table

Distinguished Guest Speaker:

Mr. John Chen, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BlackBerry Limited

Ms. Amber Kanwar, Anchor and Reporter, Business News Network

Guests:

Mr. David Chaikof, Partner, Torys LLP

Mr. Phil Kurtz, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary, BlackBerry Limited

Ms. Verity Sylvester, Vice President, CMC+CO.; Past President, Empire Club of Canada

Mr. Michael White, Chief Executive Officer, IBK Capital Corp.

Mr. William White, Chairman, IBK Capital Corp.; Director, Empire Club of Canada

My name is Colin Lynch. I am the Vice President, Strategy and Growth, in the executive office of Greystone Managed Investments, and the First Vice President of the Empire Club of Canada.

Ladies and gentlemen, your Head Table guests.

We have a group of students joining us today from Centennial College as well as from Ryerson University. Students, please, rise to be recognized. Thank you.

In celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday and our third event in our sesquicentennial series, I now ask our series sponsor, represented by Mike White, as well as our guest of honour, Mr. Chen, to join me at the podium and blow out the birthday candles.

Over the past 113 years, the Empire Club of Canada has been privileged to welcome Canadian and international political leaders, policy thinkers and chief executives of corporations, think tanks and nonprofit organizations to the stage. Many have spoken of the critical role that innovation and technology plays in building the fabric of our nation. Today, this point has become obvious. We live in an age where technology has become integral to many aspects of modern life, right down to the devices in our pockets.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Mr. John Chen, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry. John brings to the stage an impressive track record of leadership. John started his career at Burroughs Corp. as an engineer and held executive positions at Siemens Nixdorf, Pyramid Technology Corp. and Unisys. He then served as Chairman and CEO of Sybase Inc. for 15 years, an impressive feat, particularly, in the technology industry, where he developed and led the company’s re-invention from a mature, slower-growth technology company into a $1.5 billion-plus, high-growth innovator. Under his direction, Sybase became the leading provider of enterprise mobility and mobile commerce solutions, achieving 55 consecutive quarters of profitability.

Leading BlackBerry is not enough. John serves on the board of directors for The Walt Disney Company and Wells Fargo & Co., and is impressively active in the not-for- profit community, as a trustee of Caltech, member of CFR, national trustee of The First Tee and as a Governor of the San Francisco Symphony.

Today, we are delighted that John will be joining in conversation with Amber Kanwar, a member of the Empire Club of Canada Board of Directors and an anchor and reporter of the Business News Network, where she appears frequently on Business Day AM and The Disrupters.

Please, join me in welcoming John and Amber to the stage Mr. John Chen in Conversation with Amber Kanwar

AK: Welcome, everyone. Thanks so much for joining.

John, thanks so much for giving us your time.

JC: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

AK: We should disclose that in two days, BlackBerry reports their results for the second quarter of the year. They are in a quiet period. If you are expecting BlackBerry or John to announce that they are getting out of handsets, today is not your day. Everybody stayed, so that is good. They are here for more. Speaking of handsets, John, what are you going to do with it?

JC: Well, you said it was not a good day to ask me for that. I do not discuss handsets when it is rainy days.

AK: That is a convenient loophole. I think Torys might have helped you out with that one. Maybe we can talk about it in a more philosophical sense because you read the endless commentary out there. They are all wondering about this question. Maybe I will ask it in a different way: Can BlackBerry survive without handsets? Is that essential to the core of the BlackBerry that you are trying to develop?

JC: It is hard to answer that question because, if I answer the question, I basically gave you the answer. Let me think about the opportunities where BlackBerry could go, on a serious note. One of the things that attracted me to BlackBerry is the amount of technology and intellectual property that BlackBerry has, in particular, the area of security. Of course, handset is part of the whole thing. I always tell people that the handset is kind of the entry point of our security, not the standalone by itself. It is a whole series. Behind the handset, we have our server technology—a lot of people would know it is called the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. We bought a whole bunch of companies that enhance that security and mobile solution, people like Good Technology and Watchdox that do file collaborations and AtHoc, which does crisis management software. There is a list of that. We have Boost that probably is the most end-to-end, most complete solution, both in terms of the hardware and the software.

Gradually, while we have recognized the fact that the majority of the market is over there outside in Android, in iOS world, all of this software we made it so that it could run on those devices and managing devices of those.

Behind that, we have this embedded technology. We own a company called QNX—the claim to fame—which has had the most secure embedded operating system. For those of you who are techies, it is called a microkernel technology. There is a whole reason why it is more secure. That is part of the reason. It is in about 60 million active cars, today, running around out there in infotainment systems today. In the last couple of two, three years, we invested in advanced driver assistance systems; we invested in telematics; we invested in vehicle-to-vehicle communication; and the list goes on. It is in Ottawa. This one, personally, I think it is a Canadian pride that owns this kind of technology and the market share.

The reason why you do not hear a lot about that is because we take that technology and we actually sell it to what they call a Tier 1. Tier 1 are the people like Panasonic, Harman, Denso. They make the dashboards for these car companies, and then they install it. Inside the dashboard is us, except that recently—about a year ago or two years ago—we successfully unseated Microsoft in Ford and replaced a Sync. All 2016 models—like, today, we drove a Ford car here, a rental car, and that has a Sync, our Sync technology in it. Those are the third layer.

The fourth layer of technology and security is the NOCs, the network operating centre. The good thing about BlackBerry—for this, I cannot claim credit; I think Jim and Mike should claim the credit, as they had the foresight to connect all the operators around the world, about 600 or so. And it is done using T1 line and using all kinds of GRX technology, and we securely connect all these telecoms around so that we can transport messages. We still own that, and it is the most secure NOCs there is. It is the largest NOC outside of any telephone company. Those are multiple layer. And then, throughout the layer, we have the IP. People hardly know that. Again, this is a credit to the higher management that we have roughly about 38,000 or 39,000 patents around the world. About 26% of that are for the handset. The rest of them are not. The rest of them are really about security, about encrypted code, for those people who are students there. They are cryptology. A company that we own, called Certi- com, is still the best technology, the best cryptological company there is today in the world. We are beginning to license it. The one thing is that, I think, when BlackBerry was doing so well, we missed the opportunity to commercialize a lot of this stuff.

To answer your question in a very long way, and I have a lot of opportunity to grow the revenue of the company, we just need to set it up that way because selling software and licensing technology are quite different and to go into the enterprise is quite different from walking down to Rogers and picking up one of our phones. This is a completely different mindset and organization. We have been busy in the last couple of years. We are adjusting ourselves to that.

AK: It used to be very easy to answer the question what is BlackBerry? BlackBerry makes phones. Based on what you described, you have got all these layers that are acting to be kind of this next driver of growth for BlackBerry. I will just ask you the question: What is BlackBerry today?

JC: It is going to be a secure software company.

AK: What percent of the way through are you? You came on board November 2013. You have had a couple of years under your belt. You were obviously brought on as a turnaround artist. What percent of the way through are you to achieving your stated goals?

JC: Two thirds of the way.

AK: Two thirds.

JC: When I first came, I do not know how many people knew that we were on the verge of kind of going away. I do not want to overly dramatize it, but it was extremely difficult.

AK: Did you know that walking into the room?

JC: I did know, but I did not know to what extent and what degree.

AK: It was worse when you walked in.

JC: Yes, you always have this, where people like me come into a situation, and you look at it as a challenge, and then you find out that you are very naïve; then, you promise you will not do it again. I did it three times. Yes, I knew. It was not lost on me. You could not be lost. There were enough people writing about it, people like the media that like to dump on BlackBerry—newspapers and TV series and all of that. Anyway, I knew that. It was important for me to make sure that our team stabilized the financials, and we did. We recently refinanced our debt. We talked about it saving us $50 million a year in interest rates. That $50 million we could either report it as profit, or we most likely are going to invest it into this growth area.

I know I need a strategy that is encompassing of all the assets that I laid out. It is kind of a mouthful just now. What it really is—I am going to give you the view of the market. You hear everybody talk about IoT.

AK: Internet of Things.

JC: Yes, Internet of Things. You can go to almost everybody from telephone companies to technology companies, to automotive companies, and everybody says they are in IoT, to people that build houses, smart homes and appliances and all that. Nobody is not in IoT. It is kind of like if I tell you that I am in the business of the Internet. You can say, “Okay, what in the world does that mean?” What we want to focus on in terms of IoT is going to be the most secure layer of IoT. Now, you take everything I just talked about, how you manage your devices and the software that transports the information. That is what we are going to do. We are going to be the backbone of communication for the IoT. I think that, if we are successful, we could really grow a big company out of it. As I identified, we are lined up to execute it. Now, we need to start seeing some growth.

AK: What is that? You said you are two thirds of the way. What does it take to get to the finish line?

JC: We just need to get it done.

AK: Okay, there you go.

JC: Right now, we will make some investments, but, by and large, it is now about getting it done. It is not about you need this piece, or you need a new idea. It is not about that or about that you need the money. For the people who are interested in BlackBerry—and I hope most Canadians are—this company is safe.

I was negotiating my debt. I will give you a little tidbit. It is not really a big secret or anything.

Obviously, the negotiation always goes back and forth. There was one point during the negotiation that we were stuck on some terms. I literally said, “Okay, then, forget it. I am just going to pay the entire debt.” I realized afterwards when I said that, it was not said in a very boastful or a bluffing way. I realized that all of a sudden, BlackBerry has the ability to pay off the entire debt, which was $1.2 billion. Two, three years ago, when we first came in, we did not have that ability to do that. This is a company that is now financially well maintained and controlled. We had made investments worth over $1 billion plus, as we acquired about five, six different companies in software or in security. Now, we need to execute it.

AK: You are making a bet, too, that security is going to be the main driver and the key differentiator of why a business chooses you as their platform versus any of the other competitors. There are a lot of them. I guess my question is, do people…?

JC: Security companies—did you say there are a lot of them?

AK: No, no, a lot of people that are playing in Internet of Things as software, not necessarily pushing at security. Your bet is that the security layer is going to be the key differentiator.

JC: Right.

AK: In this environment where you are hearing about hacks every other month, and they kind of just roll off of people’s back, how sure are you that people are going to pay for that, that companies are actually going to invest to make sure that they are secure?

JC: That is a good question. They have to. Let me provide a few things. I know there is a lot of people from Bay St. who work for financial firms. I think that regulators are going to insist that you show a certain level of cybersecurity. By the way, mobility is not a choice. You need to go find the best mobile security solution. You have got to come to us. Why do you need to come to us? If you look at the latest Gartner Report—and I would encourage you all to look at it, and I would ask your CIO to do so—they laid out the most secure mobile solution with six critical items. We are number one in all six. There is no other company. One of our guys in marketing said that they were trying to come up with—I do not know how many people see that Flonase commercial, in which the nose spray—

AK: Are you getting into that as well?

JC: No, no, no. That commercial has something very interesting. They said six is better than one. I am trying to steal that line. They have six different ingredients in it. Go look at that commercial. Google it.

AK: You mentioned the Gartner data. The Gartner data, on certain platforms, will also show BlackBerry losing market share.

JC: Absolutely. They hate us.

AK: I will follow through on my question.

JC: I got my good friends at Gartner, here in town. It is good to have a difference of opinion. I think, in some cases, they are biased. A lot of the analysts are people, and they could get it wrong. I could get it wrong. The only thing I could do is do the best we can. I am not there to win the popularity contest. The fact is that if you read the Gartner Reports two, three years ago about BlackBerry, you would never see anything positive. For whatever reason—historical reality, perception, whatever reason it is—that you have to accept.

But today, they have something good to say about BlackBerry. I am not saying that therefore we have everything right, but that is progress. That is progress that a company should feel good about. We work hard at it.

AK: It feeds into this perception where some people are still waiting and hoping for that old BlackBerry to come out and be a competitor to the likes of Apple, Google, Samsung. You have taken a different approach to those formerly competitive relationships. Maybe just flesh that out a little bit more and why people who are waiting for the iPhone killer to come from BlackBerry might be waiting a very long time.

JC: There are a couple of things. In business, I found, through all these years, if you look at a business strategy in an emotional way, most likely, you will always lose. This is not a religion. I would love every one of you to get your BlackBerry back, and I know some of you still use it, but some of you are probably closet iPhone users. I have my staff using FaceTime, and they would, by mistake, said that to me: “I FaceTimed somebody yesterday.”

I look at them and say, “FaceTime? I did not know we have that app.” The most embarrassing thing is that sometimes when I went to dinner with friends and their spouses and all that, they would take a big picture and say, “This is a great picture. Let me AirDrop it to you.” “AirDrop”? My goodness, I do not do “AirDrop,” BlackBerry. I keep telling them AirDrops are the most insecure way of transferring stuff.

Anyway, let me answer the question this way. I really think about it as the Served Available Market. If we are building secure software to secure all the end points, you, as individuals, should have all the choices. Whatever phone you want to use, whatever devices you want to use—whether you want to use Alexa from Amazon—you should control whatever end points you want to control, and I should be able to be a supplier to you, so that you can use my technology. If I restrict it to just the BlackBerry phone, I just killed my Served Available Market. I think that is not a way to look at a business. I could do that. I could hang on to it and say all my real applications can only run on BlackBerry.

We do have a set of applications that only run on BlackBerry devices because of security, not because we want to restrict it that way but because it is very, very hard to make iOS and Android follow our protocol to make that secure. For government users, for banks, it is still better to use the BlackBerry devices. That is one of the reasons why I did branch out. We do encompass everybody. If you are in the Internet of Things, it is about consumer choices. I cannot say that BlackBerry is going to build you a washer and dryer; BlackBerry is going to build—

AK: The most secure washer and dryer.

JC: Exactly, so what? You will never lose your clothes?

AK: Is that where the next wave of growth is going to come from in mobility is software, not just for BlackBerry, but there is this notion that the handset market has reached peak saturation; it has become commoditized, so those kinds of growth rates are going to be very hard to come by? Are we now in an era where you want to play the things that can grow on this saturation of smartphones?

JC: Yes. I want to take advantage of the fact that there is a huge installed base out there. Yes.

AK: Last year, when you were rolling out the Priv, I asked you how you spend most of your time. You said most of it is with negotiating with carriers, and you felt maybe people do not appreciate how much time you are spending doing that. What do you spend your time doing these days?

JC: End-user customers. I have been talking to bankers, governments, CIOs, mostly those. I have been on Wall Street all the time. If you look at the infrastructure of most of the companies on Wall Street, most of the firms, they are all BlackBerry-based, anywhere from the Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Softgen—the list goes on. I am spending more time with them directly. I think the carrier has two reasons for it. I have a lot of good friends that run carriers. Our business case and their business case and the reality of the market actually does not line up. The carriers are less and less interested in selling you a cell phone. They used to sell you a cell phone because they wanted to use that to entice you to their subscriber plan. They are less and less interested in that. If you look at the carrier business case, that does not make them money. I think, over time—we are not the market leader by any stretch of the imagination. For them to get excited over this relationship—other than having good meals together—does not make sense. We need to work on things that make sense.

Some of the carriers and us are working on cars together, the autonomous driving cars, the telematics to the autonomous driving cars. The connected cars that need security do not want to be hacked in. We are working on that. That excites them, but that is their growth. Just as I am excited about our growth, they are excited about growth. Going back, doing the so- called type approval and rolling out on handsets, it is difficult for me to expect them to be very excited about that.

AK: Spending a lot more time with customers just trying to get BlackBerry software in enterprises. When you first came on board, I think all the press, all the media, were looking at what is going to be sold and how fast is it going to be sold and how much BlackBerry Messenger is worth. Most analysts were looking at BlackBerry— some of the parts, if you broke it all up—in terms of this is what the company is worth. Instead, over the course of your career at BlackBerry, I think all you have sold, really, is the real estate?

JC: Yes, we sold real estate, yes. I still have some more, if you like.

AK: Instead, you have been doing acquisitions, a string of tuck-in acquisitions, a big one in Good Technology. Is BlackBerry, today, more likely to be a buyer of assets or a seller of assets?

JC: We are not selling assets. I am into monetizing assets. If I could not find a way to grow the business and make money, of course, we would sell it, but we are not. Anything core to us from the strategies I laid out, to be the most secure platform for all the interconnects, none of those things will be sold. We might partner. We signed an agreement on BBM Consumer, a major media company in Indonesia. We have about 60 million monthly active users in Indonesia. We own the market in that sense, and we want to extend that to get more active users, to get active users to spend more time, and to create an advertising model. I am not going to break out the number, but it is from zero to something that I think would impress you.

AK: Above zero?

JC: It is hard to impress you by not giving you the number. Trust me, we are building that business. That particular transaction was a licensing transaction exclusively to them. I would do that, but we are not selling BBM. I still own bbm.com, the name, the brand and everything associated with it and the technologies. We will do more of that. In order to get BlackBerry back in the market in a hurry, we retreated quite a bit in the last three or four years out of necessity. Now, I need to use the ecosystem to get it back in it. I do not intend to fight Samsung or Apple on handsets in a mature market head on by saying we are going to open up five shops and hire 1,000 people. If I get there, somebody should examine my head. That is not a high probability. The margin of the business does not justify the risk either. The point is we are not a seller; we are a buyer.

AK: Under what conditions would you sell the company?

JC: Under what condition would I sell the company?

AK: Yes. Do not look at your lawyer.

JC: I always answer the question this way. When the price is right, I will, but the shareholders need to get a huge reward. For the bet they are putting in right now, some of them are long-term, patient shareholders. They need to get their money back. I think we still have a long ways to go.

AK: Are you there for the long haul?

JC: That is up to the board of directors. This is not a self-employed business. I cannot say yes, I will be here forever. I think the board has to decide on whether they want me to be here longer or not. I signed a five-year agreement. This is public information. I signed a five-year agreement. I am two years and ten months and how many days into it. I am about halfway.

AK: You are about halfway, and two-thirds of the way complete?

JC: Yes, two-thirds of the way complete.

AK: When you came on board and people were just getting to know your background here in Canada—of course, a lot of people knew you from the tech world in the United States—there was a lot made about what you did at Sybase and the turnaround effort that, as Colin mentioned, took 15 years, so it certainly was not overnight. A lot of people said he is just going to do that with BlackBerry. Spell out for us in what ways the Sybase situation was different from the BlackBerry situation.

JC: My approach is not different; the companies always are different. Sybase has a pretty sticky installed base in financial trading systems, equity trading systems. It has a pile of sticky maintenance revenue, unlike our service activation fee that BlackBerry—my number one pain point is that the old revenue is rolling off. I call it the ‘Apple theory’, the ‘Newton theory’, meaning that you sit underneath the tree, and something hits you while you are reading a book. It is gravity. I cannot stop gravity because it is the market. What I could do is to replace what I lose in the erosion and get the company back financially sound. I think we are beginning to do that. Because of that—those are the differences—one has sticky revenue; the other one does not.

However, the thing about BlackBerry that is more exciting in a sense is it has all these assets that we just talked about including intellectual property. I think it is aiming at the market in the right place. At Sybase, it was easy to get the financials back in check, but it was harder to grow to an adjacent. At BlackBerry, it is harder to get the financials on track, but it is so much assets at the right part of the market that it is actually easier to get to an adjacent to declare victory there. This is very different, but you have got to have patience in both cases.

AK: Are you saying, on the intellectual property, that you are looking to monetize it, in fact, turn it on for Black- Berry’s purposes or—I know you said you are not a seller of assets—are you looking to sell off some of those IP licenses?

JC: It depends. When I say ‘monetize’, I really meant ‘licensing’. I do not mean selling. Selling is a one-time event. Licensing, hopefully, is ongoing.

AK: Canadians, I think, when they hear the name ‘BlackBerry’, there is some sadness associated with this company that has really fallen from grace. You have felt that; you have seen that in press coverage. What should Canadians feel about BlackBerry today?

JC: This is serious. I am not joking: One thing that surprised me is how BlackBerry has lost a lot of Canadian support. That surprised me. I always thought that this is an iconic brand. It represents a lot about the history of technology and innovation of this country. It has been number one for a long time with the best brand in the world. Yet, when I started this effort of rebuilding, I ran into all kinds of problems with a lot of different—I am not going to name the names, but I was surprised. What I think Canadians ought to think about is that innovation and knowledge are the next plateau of the evolutions of economy. Having a healthy BlackBerry is actually of paramount importance, not only to the Waterloo areas, but to the innovation centres and all that, the mindset and history. We already lost Nortel. Nokia lost, too.

AK: That was for somebody else.

JC: We already lost Nortel. From an industry-observer point of view, that, in my mind, was very unfortunate for Canada. It had been a rival to Cisco and was healthy for the market. I do not think BlackBerry goes away or does anything for Canada or the industry, at large. That is my personal view. I think BlackBerry should do the work. We cannot expect other people to do the work for us. Some level of support and encouragement, I think, is going to be a win-win for all. That is my opinion. We are still working on that.

AK: Maybe let us move on to something less controversial, Donald Trump.

JC: That was not controversial.

AK: That was not controversial—you are right. You are a card-carrying Republican. I think if history had gone a different way, in several respects, you might be working for an administration, but you are not. We have the debates tonight.

JC: I do not have the debate. They have the debate.

AK: You do not; that is right. They have the debates. I guess we will be watching. What do you make of Donald Trump and his chances, as somebody who is a Republican?

JC: I can only refer to what I have publicly stated. I had an interview a little while back, actually, the same week in July as the Republican National Convention. I was interviewed. On record, it is there. Yes, I am a Republican. I think I am Republican because I am financially, economically moderate and conservative. I think that those are the Republican qualities that I have.

I do believe that you need to generate more than you spend, so deficit is not a good thing. It does not matter what the economic theory behind it is. Eventually, it is not a good thing. Maybe for a short term it may be okay. I think the taxation strategy that Republicans laid out, as Donald Trump laid out, makes sense to get more business flowing. I would buy that.

But, as an immigrant to the United States and as one of a minority, it is very difficult for me to sign on to his platform. I think he sharpened the divide of people, which is never a good thing. I get the feeling that he often says things to wow people. It is just irresponsible. Building the wall and having Mexico pay for it was an interesting phenomenon, proposition. I think that it is, unfortunately, in my personal, humble opinion, degrading and somewhat condescending. I worry about the foreign policy side of the equation and the domestic policy. It is going to be very, very difficult for me to support him.

An interesting thing is that once I put out that article or that interview, I immediately got emails from my good friends in Washington. As Amber put it, I was quite connected. I was on Bush 43, a number of commissions and so forth, and I was on the Export Council for the United States for a while, so I got up front and close to anything related to the Free Trade Agreement at that era. I got these emails that say, “I guess you are not moving to D.C. anytime soon.” I guess I just politically murdered my own career, chances of a career, yet again. I am now on Canadian television. I think I have given up on that since I am going to employ myself at BlackBerry.

AK: You have got that Canadian citizenship waiting for you if you turn around and come back.

JC: After that conversation, I probably do need to seek asylum in Canada. I do not know how I drifted off on this topic. In this case, I found it disturbing. I hope I learn something tonight that changes my mind. I hope he was just doing this to win the nomination. So far, it has not really worked since the nomination.

AK: I think we just have a few minutes left, but at this point, I wanted to open it up to the floor just to see if we have one or two questions. Does anybody have a question they would like to ask John, maybe about handsets?

Questions & Answers

Q: At the outset, it was mentioned that you are on the board of Wells Fargo—obviously a sensitive situation there. The cross-examination last week from Elizabeth Warren was vicious. Do you have any comments just more broadly about the view towards corporate America from the government perspective?

JC: Amber already tried.

AK: I did.

JC: You want to say?

AK: No, you go ahead. You are the storyteller.

JC: On the day the settlement was announced with OCC, Amber already emailed me. My answer to everybody’s question is, since everything is going on, I am going to refrain from making any comments. Probably, legal counsel would advise that. I am sorry, but I should not be talking about this at this point.

AK: Thank you, John, so much for your time. Thank you everybody for joining us.

Note of Appreciation, by David Chaikof, Partner, Torys LLP

Thank you. I have a brief thank you to express to John, but, before doing so, I think it was really special that all of us at the Head Table were introduced. Amber almost got John to blush. I am now going to try and get Amber to blush. I think there is a person here that deserves special introduction and recognition, which is Amber’s mother, who is today here with us. Please, if you would stand for us. Thank you. It is very special.

Look, when I first had the pleasure of meeting John on his very first day of work, I was so impressed by his open manner, humility and his approachability. With John, as you have seen today, there is no arrogance nor any bluster. As his remarks today illustrated, he possesses a deep understanding of the markets in which BlackBerry operates, its customers, and the competition. John’s passion, effort and leadership, in my opinion, have led BlackBerry to now become the global leader in enterprise software and security. John, I am confident that you have the necessary skillset to continue to lead BlackBerry down this path, this journey and this new direction and to make all of us here, as Canadians, proud. Thank you.

Concluding Remarks, by Colin Lynch

A sincere thank you to our generous sesquicentennial series sponsor, IBK Capital Corp. and to our event sponsor, Torys LLP, for making this event possible. Without sponsors like these great companies, the Empire Club lunches would not be possible. Thank you, once again for your support.

I would also like to thank the National Post, as our print media sponsor and Rogers TV, our local broadcaster. We would like to thank mediaevents.ca, Canada’s online event space for live broadcasting today’s event to thousands of viewers around the world. Although our club has been around since 1903, we have, very fortunately, moved into the 21st century, and are very active on social media. Please, follow us online at @Empire_Club and visit us online at www.empireclub.org. You can also follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and virtually anything else online.

Finally, please, join us again as we have some extraordinary events scheduled over the coming weeks, including Mr. Alain Bellemare, President and CEO of Bombardier on Wednesday, September 28th; Ms. Deryn Lavell, the Head of The Bishop Strachan School on Thursday, September 29th, which is this week; and MPP Patrick Brown, Leader of the Ontario PC party next week, October 6th.

Thank you to our esteemed guests. It was a wonderful lunch. Thank you for your attendance today. This meeting is now adjourned.