Vodafone Group Plc’s board has enlisted headhunters to help find a replacement for the chief executive officer it abruptly ousted in December after its share price hit a 25-year low, people with knowledge of the matter said.
(Bloomberg) — Vodafone Group Plc’s board has enlisted headhunters to help find a replacement for the chief executive officer it abruptly ousted in December after its share price hit a 25-year low, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The British telecommunications group has chosen Egon Zehnder International Inc. to lead the search for Nick Read’s successor, the people said. The search is in its infancy, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
Egon Zehnder has a track record for high-profile CEO appointments, such as for Unilever Plc in 2018, Bloomberg News has reported. Representatives for the search firm and Vodafone declined to comment.
Whoever ends up running the mobile and broadband group will face a number of challenges. Vodafone has been battling to overcome roadblocks to a complex potential merger of its British business with CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s Three UK, people with knowledge of the matter said last month.
Any new leader will also have to manage shareholders like billionaire telecom tycoon Xavier Niel. There’s also pressure to improve performance in Germany, Vodafone’s biggest market, and neutralize years of price competition that have eroded earnings in Italy and Spain.
One of the biggest decisions Vodafone’s board will need to make is whether to shake things up with an outsider, echoing the 2018 appointment of Philip Jansen to helm rival British carrier BT Group Plc, or tap someone with internal experience.
Vodafone has never before appointed a complete outsider as CEO. Bernstein analysts wrote in December there’s no obvious internal successor, so the company’s longstanding problems may encourage headhunters to cast a wider net beyond the business and its competitors.
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