Tokyo, Japan - May 21, 2015, Tokyo, Japan - Yahoo Japan Corp. said that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son would step down as its chairman in June, to be succeeded by SoftBank president Nikesh Arora.
Article continues below
Ms. Son founded SOFTBANK Corp. Japan (currently SoftBank Corp.) in September 1981. He was named Chairman of SOFTBANK Corp. Japan in April 1983, in 1996 was named President and CEO of Yahoo Japan Corporation and in July 1996 he became Chairman of the board of Yahoo Japan Corporation.
Ms. Son was appointed as Chairman of the Board, President & CEO of Vodafone K.K. (currently SoftBank Mobile Corp.) and in July 2013 he was named Chairman of the Board of Sprint Corporation.
SoftBank appointed Nikesh Arora as president of the company from June 19, 2015. He served as the Vice Chairman of SoftBank Corp. and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (SIMI). He left Google in July 2014 resigning from the post of Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer.
Mr. Arora worked for Deutsche Telekom, Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments. He worked as Chief Marketing Officer and as a Member of the Management Board at T-Mobile, Bharti Airtel, Europe and serves as a Trustee at the Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles, California.
Mr. Arora joined Google in 2004. He was Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Google since January 2011 until July 2014.
Previously he held multiple senior operating leadership roles at Google, serving as President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development from 2009 to 2010, President, Europe, Middle East and Africa from 2007 to 2009 and Vice President, Europe Operations from 2004 to 2007.
Since 2007, Mr. Arora has also served as a Senior Advisor to Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Chief Marketing Officer of the T-Mobile International Division of Deutsche Telekom AG.
Mr. Arora was Chief Executive Officer and Founder of T-Motion PLC, which merged with T-Mobile International in 2002. He began his career at Fidelity Investments in 1992, holding a variety of finance and technology management positions, ultimately serving as Vice President, Finance of Fidelity Technologies.
Mr. Arora served on the board of directors at Colgate-Palmolive Company from March 8, 2012 until his resignation on September 10, 2014. ■