By Jim Finkle and Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd BB.TO Chief Operating Officer Marty Beard has resigned from the Canadian software company, effective Dec. 1, to help family members deal with health issues, a person familiar with the plans told Reuters on Friday.
Beard, 54, whose departure was disclosed to BlackBerry staff in an internal company memo on Friday, does not intend to look for another job, said the person who did not want to be identified because the matter is private.
The source did not say whether BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen intended to name a new COO.
Representatives with BlackBerry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the departure.
Beard was one of the company's leaders in a years-long effort to turn around Blackberry following the collapse of its smartphone business. He helped Chen develop a strategy for shifting the focus away from its smartphone business and deeper into enterprise software.
He oversaw marketing, partnerships, developer outreach and other areas.
Beard joined BlackBerry in 2014 from a startup LiveOps. He previously worked for Chen at Sybase Inc, a software maker that Chen built up and sold to Germany's SAP AG (DE:SAPG).