Marcelo Claure, founder of the 1Million Project, is President and CEO of Sprint Corporation and a member of the board of directors of SoftBank Group Corp. He joined the company in August 2014 and is leading one of the most significant transformations in U.S. corporate history. 

Marcelo embodies the successful pursuit of the American Dream. He immigrated to the United States from Bolivia and later became a U.S. citizen. In 1994, he started his first business, a small retailer of wireless phones. In 1997, he founded Brightstar as a small, Miami-based wireless distributor that he transformed into the world’s largest global wireless distribution and services company with revenues exceeding $10 billion and a presence in more than 50 countries.

Marcelo is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a member of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame. In 2016, the Carnegie Corporation of New York selected him as part of its “Great Immigrants: The Pride of America” initiative.

Education has always been an important cause for Marcelo. More than a decade ago, he and Nicholas Negroponte co-founded One Laptop Per Child, an organization dedicated to providing low-cost laptops to children in impoverished communities. At Sprint, Marcelo created the 1Million Project to help bridge the digital divide and close the homework gap for 1 million U.S. high school students. He believes that every hardworking student deserves access to the devices and internet connectivity they need to pursue their dreams. 

Marcelo is also Chairman of CTIA – The Wireless Association and Treasurer of My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit working to eliminate opportunity gaps for young men of color. 

Marcelo earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance in 1993 and an honorary Doctorate of Commercial Science from Bentley University in Massachusetts. He is a member of the 2016 Class of Henry Crown Fellows and the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. Marcelo is married and has five children.