He came to the role after heading Scarlet, an acquisition of Belgacom, as chief executive from 2008 to 2010.

He worked at a Nokia corporate venturing unit spun off from the company as BlueRun Ventures between 1998 and 2007 before becoming managing partner at Nokia Growth Partners, which looked at later-stage deals.

The company has done 18 investments, which are strategic for 3M at mostly early stage, investing approximately $3m to $5m as lead or co-investor.

As well as founding venture firm SoftBank Capital, he is a director and president of SoftBank Holdings and on the board of the parent company SoftBank Corporation.

He joined having worked at venture firm TVM Capital as a general partner since 2007.

Sherwood Dodge has been looking after corporate development and equity investment for the past three years.