Marcelo Claure

Raul Marcelo Claure Bedoya is a Bolivian-American technology entrepreneur, businessman, and investor.

He is currently the founder and CEO of Claure Group, the Executive Chairman of Bicycle Capital, and Group Vice Chairman for Shein.

Raúl Marcelo Claure was born in Guatemala on 9 December 1970 to Bolivian parents.

At the time of his birth, Claure's father worked as a geologist for the United Nations.

When he was two years old his family moved to Morocco, then to the Dominican Republic before moving to La Paz, Bolivia, where Claure spent most of his childhood.

He attended the Instituto Domingo Savio school and later transferred to the American Cooperative School in La Paz, graduating in 1989.

Later that year, he left La Paz to attend what was then the University of Lowell, in Lowell, Massachusetts.

He subsequently transferred to Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance.

He has an Honorary Doctorate of Commercial Sciences from Bentley University He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Babson College in May 2022 and is a fellow of Harvard Business School.

Claure returned to La Paz after graduating college and joined the Bolivian Football Federation as the head of business operations.

In 1995, he returned to the United States and bought USA Wireless, a cellular retailer.

He expanded the company before selling it one year later.

In 1996, Claure became President of Small World Communications, a California-based communications and distribution company.

He led the company for two years before relocating to Miami, Florida.

Claure founded the wireless services company Brightstar in 1997, which ranked as the largest Hispanic-owned business in the United States for six years.

Claure founded Brightstar in Miami in October 1997, initially focusing the wireless distributor and service provider on Latin America.

With Claure as CEO, the company opened offices throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 2001, the company entered a distribution agreement with Motorola for all of Latin America, subsequently signing a global distribution agreement in 2007.

With Claure retaining ownership,

Claure sold the company to join Sprint in 2014, serving as Sprint's President and CEO from 2014 until 2018, and as executive chairman from 2018 until 2020.

Credited with having "led a turnaround" at Sprint, he oversaw the company's planned merger with T-Mobile USA.

He currently sits on the board of the combined company.

Claure joined the Sprint Corporation board of directors in January 2014.

On 5 August 2014, he was selected to replace Dan Hesse as the head of Sprint Corporation.

The announcement was made on 6 August 2014, coinciding with Bolivia's independence day.

Claure became Sprint's President and CEO on 11 August 2014.

From 2020 until early 2022 he was the chief executive officer (CEO) of SoftBank Group International and chief operating officer (COO) of SoftBank Group Corporation.

He oversaw SoftBank's operations and strategy along with CEO Masayoshi Son.

As COO of SoftBank Group, a technology investment company, Claure oversaw portfolio companies such as Boston Dynamics, Arm Holdings, Fortress, SB Energy, and WeWork.

Claure was a SoftBank Group Investment Committee member.

He also headed the $5 billion SoftBank Latin America Fund and SB Opportunity Fund, a $100 million fund dedicated to investing in entrepreneurs of color.

He was the executive chairman of WeWork and was on the boards of Arm and Fortress.

While continuing as CEO of Claure Group,  in June 2023 he launched Bicycle Capital, a Latin America-focused venture capital fund targeting $500 million.

In February 2023, he was appointed chair of the Latin American operations of Shein, a fashion firm.

Claure was appointed Shein's Group Vice Chairman in October 2023.

Claure is owner of the football team Club Bolivar; chairman and co-owner of Girona FC since August 2020.

Claure is also involved in philanthropy.

In his role at Brightstar, he helped launch One Laptop Per Child and as CEO of Sprint, he created the 1Million Project Foundation.

Both initiatives provide computer access to students.

As of August 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$2 billion by Bloomberg, making him Bolivia’s wealthiest person.