Heins replaced longtime co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who stepped down in January, and has moved quickly to clear house. Other key executives have also exited the company in the past year.
A chief operating officer, Jim Rowan, and head of software David Yach left in March, at the same time that Balsillie left the board. Other recent departures include Alan Brenner, a senior vice president for the BlackBerry platform, and Alistair Mitchell, a vice president for the BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging product.
The head of RIM's India unit left in November, its head of government relations left months before that, and former chief marketing officer Keith Pardy departed more than a year ago.
RIM said this month it had replaced Pardy with wireless veteran Frank Boulben, who has yet to start work.
Analysts expect RIM to struggle to sell its legacy devices - widely considered inferior to Apple's latest iPhone and high-end Android devices - for several quarters ahead of the planned launch of next-generation BlackBerry 10 phones later this year.
In July, RIM slashed 2,000 jobs, or about 11 percent of its workforce, to cut costs as sales and profit fell. [ID:nL3E7IP251] Its developer relations and sales and marketing teams were particularly hard hit.
The company posted a loss in its most recent quarter on the back of a writedown on unsold inventory and a slump in phone shipments.
RIM shares have fallen more than 80 percent from a peak of almost $70 in February 2011, to close at $11.09 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Carol Bishopric and Richard Pullin)
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