Jay Chai
About Jay Chai
Senior finance executive who served as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) at BlackBerry. Appointed CAO on July 29, 2024 after serving as Vice President and Controller since May 2019; resigned effective January 31, 2025. Age 47 as of appointment; previously a partner in Deloitte Canada’s audit practice for over 20 years . During his CAO tenure window (FY2025), BlackBerry reported progress on profitability and cash flow and disclosed a 69% increase in its share price over FY2025; Q1 FY2025 revenue was $144 million and the company exceeded adjusted EBITDA and EPS guidance in that quarter . He resigned to pursue other opportunities; no disagreement with the company was reported .
Past Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Strategic Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| BlackBerry Limited | SVP & Chief Accounting Officer | Jul 29, 2024 – Jan 31, 2025 | Oversaw corporate accounting during the company’s separation into distinct divisions and profitability push; appointment noted no related-party concerns . |
| BlackBerry Limited | Vice President & Controller | May 2019 – Jul 2024 | Led corporate controllership and financial reporting prior to elevation to CAO . |
| BlackBerry Corporation (subsidiary) | President (signatory capacity) | 2020 | Subsidiary leadership/signature authority on financing documents . |
| Cylance Inc. (subsidiary) | President & Secretary (signatory capacity) | 2020 | Subsidiary leadership/signature authority on financing documents . |
| Good Technology Software Inc. (subsidiary) | President (signatory capacity) | 2020 | Subsidiary leadership/signature authority on financing documents . |
| QNX Software Systems Limited (subsidiary) | Director (signatory capacity) | 2020 | Subsidiary board role for transaction execution . |
External Roles
| Organization | Role | Years | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deloitte Canada | Partner, Audit | 20+ years (through May 2019) | Senior audit partner prior to joining BlackBerry . |
Fixed Compensation
- Not disclosed. Jay Chai was not a Named Executive Officer (NEO) in the FY2025 proxy; the Summary Compensation Table lists other executives and does not include him, and his CAO appointment 8-K did not specify salary/bonus terms .
Performance Compensation
- Not disclosed. The FY2025 proxy details incentive design for NEOs (base salary, annual VIP, equity long-term incentives), but provides no individual targets, metrics, or payouts for the CAO .
- Company-level incentive design features include: clawback policy, stock ownership requirements, no single-trigger change-of-control, and no tax gross-ups .
Equity Ownership & Alignment
- Individual beneficial ownership for Jay Chai is not disclosed in the FY2025 proxy. Directors and executive officers as a group held 2,224,429 shares (0.37%) as of the record date; individual NEO and director holdings listed do not include the CAO .
- Policy alignment: the company prohibits hedging or pledging of equity and requires executives to meet minimum stock ownership requirements .
Employment Terms
- Appointment: Named Senior Vice President & Chief Accounting Officer, reporting to the CFO; no related-party transactions; age 47; prior roles disclosed (VP & Controller; Deloitte partner) .
- Resignation: Resigned effective January 31, 2025 to pursue other opportunities; no disagreement with company strategy, operations, policies, or practices was reported .
- Separation/Severance: No CAO-specific severance terms disclosed. The proxy outlines severance and change-of-control guidelines for NEOs (no single-trigger CoC; vesting continuation/acceleration rules vary by trigger), but does not specify applicability to the CAO .
Performance Context (Company-Level, during/around tenure)
- FY2025 transformation outcomes: separation of businesses (IoT rebranded QNX; Cybersecurity reorganized as Secure Communications), cost optimization exceeded >$150M annual run-rate reductions, operating cash flow turned positive in Q3 FY2025, ending cash about $410M; market price increased 69% over FY2025 .
- Q1 FY2025: revenue $144M; both divisions exceeded revenue guidance; exceeded adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP EPS guidance .
- Governance/say-on-pay: 2025 say-on-pay advisory vote approved (For 230,947,782; Against 54,745,245) .
Risk Indicators & Red Flags
- Related-party transactions: None involving Jay Chai were disclosed at appointment .
- Section 16 compliance: Proxy notes two late Form 4s for other insiders; none cited for Jay Chai .
- Hedging/pledging: Prohibited by policy .
- Legal proceedings: No Chai-specific items disclosed.
Compensation Structure Analysis (Company Policy Lens)
- Pay practices emphasize performance-linked pay (annual VIP and equity) with clawback; no tax gross-ups; no single-trigger CoC; peer benchmarking around median .
- These practices generally support alignment; however, absence of CAO-specific disclosure limits pay-for-performance assessment for Jay Chai.
Investment Implications
- Alignment: Policy framework (ownership guidelines, clawbacks, anti-hedging/pledging) supports alignment; lack of disclosed CAO ownership reduces visibility into Chai’s “skin-in-the-game” during his brief CAO tenure .
- Retention/succession: Resignation after ~6 months as CAO suggests finite retention; however, departure was amicable with no disagreements disclosed, and finance leadership transitions (CFO appointment; controller promotion) were executed contemporaneously, mitigating continuity risk .
- Trading/pressure signals: No Form 4 or vesting disclosures for Chai; without vesting schedules or ownership data, there are no observable insider-selling pressure indicators tied to him. Company-level buyback activity and improved profitability/cash metrics in the broader period are more salient to trading than individual CAO actions .
- Governance sentiment: Strong say-on-pay support indicates shareholder acceptance of the executive pay framework in FY2025, reducing governance overhangs related to compensation policy broadly (not CAO-specific) .