Blackberry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) has announced the exodus of two of its top executive officers and the replacement of a third one today, in a top level shakeup that has been coming for quite some time. This follows the naming of new CEO, John Chen to its top position, replacing Thorsten Heins.

The executives who are taking flight from the troubled ship that Blackberry has become are Kristian Tear, the COO, and Frank Boulben, the CMO. The smartphone maker, based in Waterloo, Ontario also said that James Yersh will be replacing Brian Bidulka as the chief financial officer. Other notable exits from the company in recent days include Roger Martin, a six year veteran board member who has resigned his post.

Salvation From Chen?

Wall Street Insanity reported earlier in the month that Blackberry had decided to trash its plans to be bought out by Fairfaxe Financial Holdings, and had instead decided to resurrect itself through convertible notes. The company has opted to raise $1 billion through these convertible notes, in a project headed up by Fairfax.

Part of the agreement made for this plan to take effect was that Thorsten Heins would be replaced by John Chen as interim CEO. Chen is noted for his previous track record in turning wround Sybase, a software company that was failing.

Chen told Reuters that he would be making changes to the management of Blackberry, by hiring outside personnel for high level positions. He also said he would be promoting current employees to higher level positions than the ones they currently held.

James Yersh, the new CFO, has been an employee of Blackberry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) since 2008 and has served as a senior vice president and a controller and head of compliance.

Chen said in a statement today that he plans to continue building Blackberry’s management team and creating a stronger company from within. “I will continue to align my senior management team and organizational structure.” Chen has his work cut out for him in saving Blackberry, but he also has experience in dealing with flailing companies and breathing new life into them. It will be interesting to watch how investors react to his senior management changes over the next few weeks.

The stock is currently up $0.03 to $6.27.

Disclosure: Author represents that he has no position in any stocks mentioned in this article at the time this article was submitted.