Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis was joined for the opening ceremony by Professor Norbert Lammert, President of the Bundestag and MP for Bochum, Christa Thoben, Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Ottilie Scholz, Mayor of the city of Bochum.
The new facility in the Uni-Tech-Centre on the campus of Ruhr-Universität represents an investment of $45 million in the first year of operation. It opened with 140 new employees and Research in Motion plans to grow this to up to 500 people. The facility focuses on hardware and software development for BlackBerry wireless handheld computers/mobile phones.