Vodafone finance chief to leave as Verizon deal completes
Andy Halford, the group chief financial officer (CFO) of telecoms giant Vodafone has announced that after nine years on the job he'll be leaving at the end of March 2014.
Halford said that it "has been a privilege to work for one of the greatest businesses of our era for almost half of its life" and that "next year will be the right time for me to move on and seek the next chllanege in my career".
That will follow the conclusion of Vodafone's transaction with Verizon. Halford because the CFO of Verizon Wireless, the US joint venture between Vodafone and Verizon, in 2002.
Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said that Halford had "played an integral role in creating immense value for our shareholders" and that he was a "fantastic colleague".
Internal candidate Nick Read will take the job of CFO-designate from January 2014, and will get a promotion to the board on 1 April later that year. Read has been UK chief executive of Vodafone since 2006, before which he was the CFO at Vodafone UK.
There's not been a market reaction since the announcement (although Vodafone shares have been trading up by around one per cent from the open).