User:Masamune Sword/sandbox

Belonging to the third generation of Suegoro Sone, a Japanese agricultural engineer established in Chile in 1920, Roberto Sone born in July 7th 1963, is part of an important ethnic network of professionals and businessmen who settled in the Quillota Valley, Valparaíso Region, Chile.

Giving the area a very particular stamp, the Sone family has stood out for being pioneers in the cultivation and flower development, business development, technological innovation, and seed production, activity that has resulted in significant recognition and commercial success.

Considered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as one of the professionals with the most “outstanding features within Chilean society”, Roberto Yoshio Sone Cisternas, stands out for his contributions in science and technology.

Among young Nikkei professionals, Roberto Sone studied mechanical civil engineering at the Universidad Federico Santa María and was distinguished with the Federico Santa María Carrera Award (1987) for best mechanical civil engineer of his generation.

In recognition of his academic excellence, this engineer was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to enter Yale University and the Monbukagakusho scholarship, which is granted by the Japanese Government. This last it is awarded for academic and leadership merit without considering Japanese ancestry.

In Japan, Sone completes his Master of Science in Production Engineering with a mention in robotics, graduating with the award for Best Applied Research from the College of Mechanical Engineers of Japan.

Subsequently, Roberto Sone began to work at Toshiba's General Management in Tokyo, carrying out projects such as computer systems for Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Co., CreditSuiss, NTT, KDD and Tokyo Disneyland, among other companies.

As noted in the book “When the East Came to America: Contributions of Chinese Immigrants, Japanese and Koreans”, the reference citing Sone is expressed in the following way: ''"Upon his return to Chile (1996), he formed a company with other partners dedicated to advising mining companies in the modernization of their exploitation. After his participation with his cousins ​​in an export company, Sone dedicated himself to researching electronic devices and a GPS system, trying to lower costs and facilitate communication between users.

''In mid-2002 he traveled to Havana at the invitation of the Cuban Ministry of Industry and Technology to evaluate the possibility of replacing money with a magnetic card. In Cuba he was contacted by Carlos Slim, the prominent Mexican businessman, according to Forbes magazine, possessor of the largest fortune in Latin America.''

''Slim hired Sone for five years to work in the Inbursa offices, in the Smart Cards department. In addition to receiving a good contract for his electronic wallet project, for each new idea that he developed he would automatically become the owner of 40% of the company that commercialized it."

TIMM/SONDA Case
Participating in the beginning of the "Transantiago" project in Chile, the Mexican company TIMM and its Chilean partner Roberto Sone, are victims of misappropriation of information and technology by the Chilean company Sonda, who were awarded the technological project of control of fleets and collection of public transport in the city of Santiago de Chile using patents and intellectual property of the company TIMM.