In Pictures: 11 not entirely useless factoids about BlackBerry maker RIM

The other RIM guy

The second original co-founder of Research in Motion in 1984 was Douglas Fregin, who became pals with Mike Lazaridis in grade school. Jim Balsillie, the long-time co-CEO with Lazaridis, only joined in 1992. Fregin, a low-key, low-profile billionaire, was RIM’s back-room product engineering and operations maven for decades. He retired in 2007, still in his early 50s. He races cars in his spare time, participating in Toyota’s charitable Pro/Celebrity Race, and now works with the Salama Shield Foundation, an African development and AIDS relief agency in Uganda.