Comings & Goings: SoftBank Hires Bruce Gottlieb as an Executive VP

SoftBank Corp., a Japanese telecommunication and Internet company, announced Tuesday that it hired Bruce Gottlieb as its newest vice president. A Business Wire report indicates that Gottlieb will join the U.S. subsidiary Softbank Inc. as its Executive VP for Legal and Regulatory Affairs and will work out of Washington.

SoftBank specializes in consumer goods and services, such as the selling of mobile devices and accessories, providing mobile communications and broadband services, and providing Internet-based advertising. Its employees are spread across the globe, and a large portion of its revenue comes from sales in the U.S., the location to which Gottlieb will bring his experience.

SoftBank has four distinct industry segments: mobile communications, fixed-line telecommunications, Internet, and Sprint. SoftBank Mobile Corp. handles its mobile communications, SoftBank Telecom Corp. handles the bulk of its telecommunications, Yahoo Japan Corp. covers its Internet-based advertising, and Sprint handles the sale of its mobile handsets and accessories.

Gottlieb is coming to SoftBank directly from his time at the National Journal, an American political magazine for which he served as its president, and Atlantic Media, the magazine's parent company, for which he served as its senior vice president of corporate strategy. He has also worked as a staff writer for Slate, spent time in Washington as a legal clerk, and acted as Chief Council for the Federal Communications Commission.

Ron Fisher, president of SoftBank Holdings Inc., will oversee Gottlieb's work. Fisher commented on Gottlieb's leadership and the experience he will bring to the company.

“We are extremely excited to have a talented leader with Bruce’s deep experience and understanding of U.S. communications policy join the SoftBank team,” Fisher said. “Last year, we made the largest ever foreign investment by a Japanese company in the United States and we expect Bruce will play a key role in helping us manage the investments we have made in the U.S. mobile internet industry.”

Fisher has been the director and president of SoftBank Holdings Inc. since 1995 and the director of SoftBank Corp. since 1997.