RIM has been without a chief marketing officer since last year and without a chief operating officer since Heins was promoted in January. Heins replaced co-CEO's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis after the company lost tens of billions in market value.

Heins has said that RIM has to improve its marketing. Boulben will be in charge of that.

"RIM is a pioneer in the mobile world and the BlackBerry brand is a global icon," Boulben said in a statement. "We all know how fast the mobile arena evolves and with the BlackBerry 10 platform, I believe RIM will once again change the way individuals and enterprises engage with each other."

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company has long dominated the corporate smartphone market. Its BlackBerry's are known for their security and reliability. President Barack Obama even refused to part with his BlackBerry after he took office.

But while RIM still has 77 million subscribers and continues to enjoy success in emerging markets, it has had limited success in the U.S. consumer market in recent years, particularly with high-end devices that sport touch screens popular with consumers. Touch-screen BlackBerrys that lack physical keyboardshave largely flopped. BlackBerrys also lag iPhones and Android phones when it comes to running third-party applications.

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