Vodafone, the world's largest mobile phone company, yesterday
announced that its chief executive officer Chris Gent would step
down in July.
Gent, who has been at the head of Vodafone since 1997, expressed
his desire to retire to Vodafone chairman Lord MacLaurin earlier
this year. Arun Sarin, the chief executive officer of Accel-KKR
Telecom and a non-executive director of Vodafone, will replace
him.
Arun joined Vodafone in 1999 after the group bought AirTouch
Communications, where Arun was president and chief operating
officer.
Upon the merger, Sarin became chief executive of the Americas and
Asia region of Vodafone until 2000, when Vodafone's US mobile
businesses were merged with others to form Verizon Wireless, of
which Vodafone owns 45%.
Sarin, who reportedly earned £21m from the AirTouch takeover, is
expected to intensify Vodafone's drive into third-generation data
services and wireless internet.