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Vodafone Group appoints Chairman replacement: Group people movements, June 2020

By Joseph Purnell2020-05-22T14:48:00+01:00

Kleisterlee to be replaced by new Chairman van Boxmeer.
Pack shuffled at Vodafone Business.

Kleisterlee set to be replaced by Heineken CEO

Source: Vodafone / Flickr

Company	Executive	Activity	Details
Sources: Vodafone, various.
Board of Directors	Gerard Kleisterlee	Departure	Vodafone confirmed that as previously flagged, Chairman Gerard Kleisterlee is to step down, from 3 November 2020, after coming to the end of his nine-year mandate. He will be replaced by current Heineken Chief Executive (CEO) Jean-Francois van Boxmeer (see separate report). Van Boxmeer will join the Group as a Non-Executive Director from 28 July 2020, subject to shareholder approval.
Board of Directors	Jean-Francois van Boxmeer	Appointment
Group Commercial, Operations & Strategy	Simon Buck	Departure	Simon Buck, formerly Vodafone Global Enterprise’s Head of Consulting & Innovation and Director of Vodafone subsidiary Bluefish Communications, stepped away from both roles. He founded management consultancy Chrysalis DX in February 2020, and is Managing Director (MD) at the business.
	Antony Fin	Departure	Antony Finn, Head of Global Enterprise for Cloud, Hosting & Security, left the Group to join intelligence and monitoring specialist ThousandEyes as Regional Vice‑President for NEMEA.
	Jennifer Gill Didoni	New role	Jennifer Gill Didoni, Head of 5G Cloud & Services, broadened her remit to become Head of Cloud Partnerships at Vodafone Business.
	Sarah Green	New role	Sarah Green, Head of Strategic Projects & Business Management at Vodafone Business, was named Head of Business Operations for Cloud & Security.
	Teresa Martínez Herranz	Appointment	Teresa Martínez Herranz, Head of Strategy & Planning for Technology Enterprise at VfD, was named Vodafone Business’ Head of Commercial Operations for Southern Europe. She now leads a team accountable for new business and renewals across the region.
	David Tirado	Departure	David Tirado left Vodafone to join fintech startup and challenger bank Revolut as Director of Strategic Partnerships. He was previously Global Director of Growth & Digital at Vodafone IoT.
	Gianluca Pasquali	Appointment	Gianluca Pasquali, Director of Commercial Operations at Vodafone Italy (VfIt), shifted to Group level as Retail & Operations Director. His move came as Phil Patel, formerly Director for Retail & Customer Operations, and one‑time MD for M‑PESA, moved up to become Group Director of Products & Services.
	Phil Patel	New role
External Affairs	Natasha Dalton	New role	Vodafone Foundation appointed a new Head of Engagement, promoting former Communications & Fundraising Manager Natasha Dalton to the position.
Group Finance	Miguel Orue-Echebarria	Appointment	Miguel Orue-Echebarria, Vodafone Spain’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), was appointed Audit Director at Group level. He takes the vacant spot left by Diego Galli, who recently moved to newly merged Italian towerco INWIT as CFO (Vodafonewatch, #185).
Group Finance	Virginie Vast	Departure	Vodafone’s Global Head of Digital Supply Chain & Customer Operations Virginie Vast left to join Amazon as Head of Procurement, Innovation & Sustainability.
Group Technology	Volkmar Hammer	Departure	Volkmar Hammer was appointed Vodafone’s Head of Network Standards, leaving the Head of Services Applications post he had held for four years. Hammer has been in a number of leadership roles at the Group since joining from Bharti Airtel in 2007.
Group Technology	Katrin Jacke	Appointment	Katrin Jacke, Head of Human Resources (HR) Integration & Business Partnering at Vodafone Germany (VfD), left the OpCo to become HR Director, Group Technology.

Joseph PurnellJoseph Purnell is a Staff Reporter for TelcoTitans, contributing telecoms news analysis since 2019 as part of the TelcoTitans and Market Mettle Editorial team.

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