Mike Lazaridis

Waterloo, Ontario, from 1984. Lazaridis co-founded Research In Motion with Douglas Fregin while studying engineering at the University of Waterloo, whose co-op programme supplied a steady stream of trained students. RIM's BlackBerry, with secure push email and a thumb keyboard, became the business phone of the 2000s; Jim Balsillie ran the commercial side. The company was slow to respond to the iPhone, and its decline hit the town hard.