Canada's struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd. has hired a former Sony Ericsson executive to head its loss-making devices business. The said job needs a heavy dose of salesmanship to win back companies and consumers lured away by larger rivals.

Reuters, citing a statement released by BlackBerry on Monday, said that Ron Louks took the position of president of its devices and emerging solutions.

BlackBerry said that Louks was joining from enterprise grade network management service provider OpenNMS Group, where he had served as chief executive officer. He had previously worked as head of strategy for HTC Corp.'s American unit. Louks was also the head of technology at Sony Ericsson, a joint venture later bought out by Sony Corp., the report said.

BlackBerry was a smartphone pioneer, but has lost most of the market to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and devices running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The Ontario-based company has since shifted its focus from the consumer market to serving businesses, governments and other large organizatios, Reuters wrote.