Mike Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive of Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM - News) and creator of the BlackBerry, tells of his likes and dislikes.

What's in your pocket?My wallet and security card. I also carry a BlackBerry but in North America, we wear them gun-style, on a belt. Mine is a titanium 8320 Curve with Wi-Fi. I use it to run my life and for instant messaging my children when I'm away on trips.

First crush?A second-hand electric train set. I got it when I was four and living in Germany. Connecting a battery to the rails turned on the lights in the trains and that was a total revelation. It was my first experience of a closed electrical circuit.

True Love?My wife and my family. I have a 12-year-old son and a daughter who's 10-going-on-18.

Latest squeeze?One of our prototypes - a 3.5G BlackBerry. It's very fast over third-generation networks that have HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access).

What makes you mad?That teachers and academics are underpaid. Why is it that educating our children isn't the most important investment we make when everything else follows from that?

What's your most embarrassing moment?Scraping my Aston Martin in RIM's driveway. I was leaving a space and a car came from nowhere. The scratches have been fixed, but not the too-busy parking lot. It's a hazard of a growing company.

What would you most love to see?I'd like to see my children grow up to be healthy, fulfilled and happy.

If money was no object?I'd increase my investment in quantum physics research (including quantum teleportation). It holds the potential for the next major industrial revolution. I've started two institutes in Canada: the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical physics; and the Institute for Quantum Computing, at the University of Waterloo.

Favoured communication method?E-mail. It's fast, concise and not obtrusive, either for the recipient or for those around them. It's also good for one-to-many communication.

Worst mobile working experience?When I took a vacation on an island in Costa Rica and was negotiating a big contract. The local mobile network was not very advanced, and I could not use e-mail on my BlackBerry. So the office sent me the document in little chunks via SMS texting. It wasn't fun trying to read it.

Website favourites?I look at the main Canadian newspapers: The Globe and Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star. And, when I'm in Europe, FT.com. I also use Google and Yahoo!

How wrong have you been?We've been in mobile data since 1988. Year after year we've been predicting "this is the year of mobile data".We were wrong till last year, when carriers started to talk about mobile data making a meaningful contribution. I never dreamt it would take so long.

Company to watch (not yours)?IBM. They have a product called Lotus Connections. I think it's going to be a really powerful tool for corporations and governments. And we're installing it at RIM.It quickly builds up a picture of how an organisation works, and who has what expertise - based on their searches and what they tag as important.

Left field technology?Quantum computing. It will enable us to harness the inherent computing potential of atoms - rather than computer chips.This will be faster and use the fabric of reality [to compute for us]. If we could build large enough quantum computers, they would be infinitely more powerful than the computers we have today.