Vodafone Group has named group chief financial officer Nick Read as the successor to the outgoing chief executive Vittorio Colao who is stepping down in October.
Vittorio Colao was appointed Group Chief Executive in July 2008. Over the last ten years, he has overseen a strategic reshaping of the Group, exiting minority shareholdings to focus on controlled and co-controlled assets while growing mobile customer numbers from 269 million to 536 million (plus 19.7 million broadband customers) over 25 countries, including significant businesses in India, Egypt, Turkey and across Africa.
Nick Read was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer and joined the Vodafone Group Board in April 2014. He was previously the Group’s Chief Executive for the Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific region and served as a board member of a number of Vodafone’s emerging markets subsidiaries including Vodacom Group and Vodafone India.
He is a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant with a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance.
Deputy CFO Margherita Della Valle will succeed Nick Read as Group Chief Financial Officer and will join the Board, and Nick Read will become Group Chief Executive-Designate.
Gerard Kleisterlee, Chairman, Vodafone Group
Nick has been the co-architect of the Group’s strategy together with Vittorio, combining extensive international operational and commercial leadership with world-class financial acumen.