Entrepreneur From Japan Shot to Death
One of Japan’s leading Internet entrepreneurs was shot to death near a Hawthorne intersection after he cooperated with a robber and handed over his money and cell phone, sheriff’s officials said Wednesday.
Roger Boisvert, 50, who was born in Canada and worked in the Japanese business world for the last 20 years, was killed about 4 a.m. Sunday.
“We’re very shocked,” said George P. Taylor IX, who worked with Boisvert in Japan. “Roger was a visionary, a very kind man loved by hundreds in Tokyo if not more. He’s viewed as a father by lots of people who know him, an outstanding person.”
Boisvert and a friend, who was driving, were headed to a Torrance hotel when they became lost, said Sheriff’s Capt. Frank Merriman. They stopped in the 4600 block of Imperial Highway and were studying the car’s computerized navigational system when a gunman approached. After the gunman took their money and cell phone, Merriman said, he shot Boisvert.
The driver of the car is working with a sheriff’s composite artist to create a sketch of the killer.
The death hit many of Boisvert’s friends and colleagues hard in Tokyo. Colleagues at CTR Ventures K.K., the venture capital company he founded in April 2000, were huddled in meetings Thursday to figure out succession plans even as they struggled with the loss.
Boisvert was perhaps best known for founding Internet service provider Global OnLine Japan K.K., an influential player as Japan struggled in the early 1990s to catch up with the United States and Europe in Internet use.
Over the years, bigger Japanese players recognized the importance and potential for the market and equaled his success.
“GOL contributed quite a bit to the very early development of Japan’s Internet infrastructure,” said Toshiaki Sakurae, editor of Nikkei netnavigator magazine. “And this in turn inspired many Japanese engineers and entrepreneurs.”
Before starting GOL in 1994, Boisvert had worked in Japan for McKinsey and Co., the consulting company, for nearly nine years managing their internal communications. In an interview in April 2001, Boisvert said the McKinsey job was starting to bore him so he hit on trying to develop the Internet in Japan.
Tales of Boisvert’s start-up days have a familiar ring in California. But in Japan, known for its conservative, risk-averse culture, his approach was often jarring.
To start a company in Japan, initial capital of about $90,000 generally is needed. But Boisvert had only half that much in the early 1990s. To get around the rules, he borrowed the rest and returned it after 10 days. That left him with very little money to find office space, equipment and people.
The first video monitor had no screws and friends brought him used components from abroad. Early employees worked out of a tiny Tokyo office crammed with Boisvert, his wife and scads of equipment.
Boisvert only became financially secure after the sale of GOL in December 1999 to Exodus, when he was finally able to pay off his debts. Today GOL is one of Japan’s largest Internet ISPs.
Boisvert had just wrapped up a presentation in Seattle and had come to Los Angeles to explore U.S. investment and alliance possibilities for CTR Ventures.
Boisvert is survived by his wife, Yuriko, and two sons, Christopher, 21, and Steven, 18.
