Nautilus News
Marco Ayllon
March /3/2015
Marcelo Claure is a Bolivian-born founder of a multi million cell phone number one in U.S. distribution company is the new CEO of Sprint, the major number tree of the United States wireless carriers.
Executives of Sprint made its announcement about Marcelo Claure, 43, after it dropped its bid for rival wireless carrier T-Mobile.
Claure will replace Sprint’s longtime CEO Dan Hesse. Claure is the founder and CEO of Miami-based cell phone distribution giant Brightstar Corp. He built Brightstar into the world's largest distributor of cellphones.
Claure, who will assume his new post on Aug. 11, last year sold control of Brightstar to Japan’s Softbank Corp., which bought 70 percent of Sprint last year. Softbank will be acquiring Claure's stake in the Brightstar, it said. The businessman is a member of Sprint’s board.
While he loves business and the wireless world, Claure also is known for his passion for soccer.
He joined soccer star David Beckham in an effort to bring a Major League Soccer team to South Florida.
“What surprices me is that the most dynamic and cosmopolitan city in the U.S. doesn’t have a soccer team,” Claure told reporters in May. “Now all the stars are aligned.”
Claure owns Bolivia’s top soccer team, Club Bolivar. He bought the team in 2008.
Claure is rumored to have a net worth over more than $1 billion. Brightstar had about $7 billion in revenue in the year ending June 2013, according to Blomberg.
The Bolivian businessman holds investments in Bolivia and Mexico, according to Bloomberg.
“I’m happy with the amount of wealth I’ve created for myself,” Claure said, refusing to elaborate. “I like to leave it at that.”
Among the challenges ahead for the new CEO will be completing the rollout of high-speed services and
stemming the defection of customers to competitors.
In his own statement, Claure suggested Sprint would be taking on Verizon and AT&T through price cuts.
"We will focus on becoming extremely cost efficient and competing aggressively in the marketplace. While consolidating makes sense in the long-term, for now, we will focus on growing and repositioning Sprint," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
