Page Seven Digital
Through a letter that he published on his social networks, the successful Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure confirmed his departure from the Japanese telecommunications and Internet company SoftBank, which he joined in 2013 and where he held the position of director of operations. He also announced that he will undertake new projects and, by making a detailed tour of his time at the firm, highlighted the positive influence that Latin American entrepreneurs achieved.
“What I am most proud of is the positive influence we have had in a region that was once abandoned. With our support and leadership, Latin America has become a prosperous region with an exponential growth of entrepreneurs and founders and a capital market booming venture capital. We have shown the world that Latin American entrepreneurs are as good as others, the only thing missing was capital,” reads part of the letter, which he says tries to summarize his nine years at SoftBank.
Claure has reached an agreement with the company to step down, the Japanese tech giant announced in a statement on Thursday. The Bolivian led Softbank’s key projects in recent years such as “the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, the repositioning of WeWork or the launch of the largest venture capital fund in Latin America,” according to the company in its note, where He did not detail the reasons for the departure of the executive born in La Paz in 1970.
Claure does not do so either in her letter, where she is grateful for this time in the company. “Today, after 9 of the most rewarding years of my career, my professional journey with SoftBank and Masa comes to an end and a new chapter begins. I will always be grateful for the immense challenges and incredible professional opportunities they have given me to face.” During my time at SoftBank, and as I reflect on this journey, I truly consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world, not just because of the experiences, but because of the incredible people I’ve worked with along the way.”
Until now the COO (director of operations) of the conglomerate, executive vice president and director of its international branch “has made many contributions to the company, which thanks him to the maximum for his dedication and wishes him success in his new stage,” said the founder and CEO of Softbank, Masayoshi Son.
Claure, for her part, wanted to thank her “mentor and friend” Son, and stated that during his nine years in the Japanese group he “has invested in some of the most innovative and disruptive companies that will be industry leaders in years to come,” according to the Softbank note.
Claure left the post after a dispute over a possible compensation of $2 billion that he would have asked for the development of WeWork and having achieved the alliance between Sprint and T-Mobile.
