Nick Read to succeed Vittorio Colao as Vodafone Group CEO

British telecom major Vodafone said today that Nick Read will be the next CEO of the company, succeeding Vittorio Colao.

Read, currently the group's CFO, will take over from October 1.

"Effective 1 October 2018, Vittorio Colao will be succeeded by Group Chief Financial Officer Nick Read," Vodafone said in a statement.

"At the date of the Group's Annual General Meeting on 27 July 2018, 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," it said.

Colao was appointed Group Chief Executive in July 2008.

Vodafone said that 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, Vodafone said.

Read was appointed the group's CFO and joined the Vodafone Group Plc 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.

Read joined Vodafone in 2001 as Vodafone UK Finance Director before being appointed Vodafone UK Chief Commercial Officer then Vodafone UK Chief Executive. Prior to joining Vodafone, Nick Read held senior global finance positions with United Business Media Plc and Federal Express Worldwide. He is a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant with a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance.

Valle was appointed Deputy Group Chief Financial Officer in 2015. She was previously Group Chief Financial Controller, Chief Financial Officer for the Europe region, and Chief Financial Officer for Vodafone Italy.

"On behalf of the Board, I would like to express our gratitude to Vittorio for an outstanding tenure. I would also add that the appointment of Nick and Margherita serves as a testament to the strength and depth of the Vodafone senior leadership team that Vittorio has assembled and led over the last decade," Vodafone Group Chairman Gerard Kleisterlee said.