This study examines the meaning of Embratel s privatization in the 1990s for its employees and former employees, more than 20 years after the event, and fits into broader discussions of the fields of historical organizational studies and organizational memory studies. To this end, the study adopts the theoreticalmethodological approach of oral history, aimed both at the lived experience of individuals in face of historical events and at the meaning of this experience through the study of individual memory. The research innovates in organizational studies by incorporating the perspective of history-telling (Portelli, 1991; 1997), a combination of storytelling and historical research which approaches the failures, silences, and errors of memory as significant in the experience of individuals. Embratel, Empresa Brasileira de Telecomunicações, is an interesting locus for the study of memory in organizational studies. Currently a trade name for Claro SA group s corporate segment, Embratel had its formation envisioned under the 1962 Act number 4,117, during João Goulart s government, but its effective creation only occurred during the military dictatorship, in 1965. Its importance is embedded in the context of national-developmentalist policy initiated by Getúlio Vargas and strengthened by the military government, when indirect administration, especially state-owned enterprises, was conceived as instruments of economic development. To achieve this goal, these companies possessed greater managerial autonomy compared to direct administration, operating like quasi-private companies. Telecommunications and Embratel particularly stood out in the military project both for economic reasons, the need for a communications network that would interconnect the various capitals of the country for business growth, and for geopolitical reasons, as territorial integrity was part of the military strategy for a sovereign nation. Along its trajectory, with the country s redemocratization process in 1985, the initial objectives of national integration were fulfilled and the advent of technological changes, Embratel gradually lost its importance as an instrument of industrial policy and gradually acquired a service provider status, culminating in its privatization in 1998, in a context of the rise of neoliberal ideas on the economic and political levels. Its privatization is hence emblematic as it represents the end of the national-developmentalism era at the national level, globalization at the international level and the insertion of concepts such as managerialism within the public sphere. How Embratel employees interpret, elaborate, and attach meaning to the company s privatization, in the present, was the question that guided the conversation and the analysis of the narratives of 57 employees and former employees of the company, totaling 188 hours of recording later transcribed. The analysis, segmented by generational group, shows the multiplicity of memories and the many ways in which the company s privatization is signified, depending on individuals peculiar and collective experiences, shaped particularly by the social contexts in which they are located. The study also reveals how the particular interpretation of the beginning of privatization is one of the indicators of the meaning of lived experience for the narrators.