James Laurence Balsillie

Love or hate your BlackBerry, it has transformed the way nearly everyone works. Since Balsillie and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis joined forces in 1992, RIM has grown from fewer than 10 employees to over 14,000 around the world. And in 2009, Fortune dubbed RIM the world’s fastest growing company, with profits growing 84 percent over the previous three years despite the recession. Jim Balsillie seems to divide his time evenly between two activities: First, the desperate attempt to retain market share for BlackBerry products in the face of the iPhone, the iPad and the like; second, the desperate attempt to buy an American hockey team and move it to Hamilton, Ontario