Thorsten Heins, former chief executive officer of BlackBerry Ltd., is taking the reins of Powermat Technologies Ltd. from founder Ran Poliakine after a board dispute over the leadership of the wireless startup.

Heins was named CEO and chairman of Powermat, the New York– based company said in a statement today. Poliakine will become vice chairman.

"My role is about growing it to scale and making it a global leading technology company," Heins, who was BlackBerry CEO from January 2012 to late 2013, said in an interview yesterday as he was finalizing the contract. "Ran will continue to be an evangelist for the wireless recharging market."

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Poliakine, who founded Powermat in 2007, said he is "extremely excited that Heins is joining."

The move is part of a succession plan that Poliakine agreed on with the board at a Feb. 4 meeting, he said. Poliakine volunteered to step down under pressure from investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and hedge fund Hudson Clean Energy Partners, according to interviews with four board members. The investors wanted a new CEO who can take on more operating responsibilities, the board members said.

The plan was accelerated by investor Chris Burch, who filed a lawsuit last month in Tel Aviv against Powermat and Poliakine, alleging the entrepreneur was running the company for his own benefit. Burch, co-founder of Tory Burch LLC, the fashion brand that carries his ex-wife name, invested $6.5-million in Powermat in 2007. The investor, who declined to be interviewed for this story, withdrew the suit on Nov. 4, after he and the company settled on the timing of Poliakine's succession.

"Burch's lawsuit only accelerated a process which was already under way," Powermat President Daniel Schreiber said in a phone interview.

Poliakine has denied any wrongdoing and said he was leading the search for a successor using two executive recruiting firms.

"I believe Chris acted out of frustration because the process was moving very slowly," said David Tuohy, an operating partner at Hudson Clean Energy, which invested in Powermat.

Andrea Raphael, a spokeswoman at Goldman Sachs, declined to comment.

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Powermat, which is closely held and has generated little revenue, has raised $250-million in financing. Goldman and Hudson invested $30-million and $20-million respectively in a 2012 financing that valued the company at about $330-million, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That valuation has climbed to about $500-million, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the numbers are private.

Powermat's technology is used by customers including General Motors Co., which has rolled out Powermat-enabled vehicles. Starbucks Corp. is also installing the technology so consumers will be able to recharge wirelessly in 200 coffee shops in the San Francisco Bay area. DuPont is also working to embed Powermat's solution in its Corian surfaces "because it has the most powerful network effect," said David Walter, head of DuPont's global business development.

The new CEO's mission will be to continue striking partnerships with consumer companies, airports and others for Powermat's technology and to make it as pervasive as Wi-Fi. He will also have to find ways to make money off the data that the company is collecting about users, Poliakine said.

In January 2012, Heins took BlackBerry's top job from the co-founders of the once-dominant Canadian smartphone maker as it bled market share to Apple Inc.'s iPhones and to devices running Google Inc.'s Android software. Heins stepped down in November 2013 after failing to sell BlackBerry.

Poliakine and Powermat's investors said they believe the new CEO can help the company reach a multibillion dollar valuation.

"Ran is extremely creative but we now need a CEO who goes out and cut 10 more Starbucks deals, something that Ran would find boring," said Tuohy.

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At stake is an edge in the wireless power transmitters and receivers market. Revenue in the industry is projected to reach $8.5-billion in 2018, up from $216-million in 2013, according to a report by IHS Technology.

Poliakine said he likes the incoming CEO because of his relationships with mobile carriers worldwide.

"That's what Powermat needs to be adopted globally," said Poliakine.