Mike Lazaridis

From The Waterloo Way Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Mihal (Mike) Lazaridis (born 1961 in Istanbul, Turkey) is the founder and co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM), the creators and manufacturer of the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. He oversees all product development and operations at RIM.


Lazaridis founded the company in 1984 while a student at the University of Waterloo. He left school just before graduation in electrical engineering to work on a $600,000 contract with General Motors.

In the early years, RIM was packed into a tiny 500 square-foot office. Their landlord at the time, Manfred Conrad, said "they were nice boys. They showed me what they were fiddling around with on the computer, but I had no clue."

Lazaridis' company is still headquartered in Waterloo and today has more than 3000 employees. It also has other facilities across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Stars like Oprah Winfrey, Pamela Anderson and Matt Damon are among BlackBerry enthusiasts. Former Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien says, he sent his first e-mail on a BlackBerry - to Lazaridis.

In October, 2000, Lazaridis also founded the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics with $100 million of personal funds. Fellow RIM executives Jim Balsillie and Doug Fregin (whom Lazaridis has known since Grade 6) contributed $10 million each.

Contents

Personal

Born in Turkey to Greek parents, Lazaridis' family moved to Canada in 1966, settling in Windsor where his father joined Chrysler.

Lazaradis and his wife Ophelia have two children.

Lazaridis is the current chancellor of the University of Waterloo. He is also a member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Ontario Research and Innovation Council, and a Governor of the Information Technology Association of Canada.

Philanthropy

In addition to the Perimeter Institute, Lazaridis and his wife donated $33.3 million to the University of Waterloo in April 2004 for its Institute for Quantum Computing. A year later, he gave $17.2 million to the University of Waterloo, primarily for the construction of a new building shared by the Institute for Quantum Computing and the nanotechnology engineering program.


Awards and Accolades

Lazaridis is the recipient of numerous awards and honours:

  • Officer to the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of Ontario (2006)
  • TIME 100 List of Most Influential People (2005)
  • Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce Community Leader of the Year Award (2002)
  • Canada's Nation Builder of the Year, Globe and Mail (2002)
  • An honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo (2000)
  • Member of Maclean’s Honour Role of distinguished Canadians
  • Ontario’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
  • Honourary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree from McMaster University's Faculty of Engineering
  • Academy Award for RIM's role in inventing a digital-barcode reader for film editing (1999)
  • IWAY award for New Technology Development (1997)
  • The High-tech Entrepreneur of the Year Award (1996)
  • The CATA award for best high-tech product (1995)
  • An Emmy award for designs in computer film editing equipment (1994)
  • Canada Award for Business Excellence (Innovation-1992).


References

Retrieved from "http://www.thewaterlooway.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mike_Lazaridis"
Personal tools