Meet the board

The Board is responsible for the overall conduct of the Group’s business and has the powers, authorities and duties vested in it by, and pursuant to, the relevant laws of England and Wales and the Articles of Association of Vodafone Group Plc.

Details of the Board’s responsibilities, and the matters which are reserved for the decision of the Board, are set out in the ‘Matters Reserved for the Vodafone Group Plc Board’, which has been approved by the Board.

The Board meets at least seven times a year and the meetings are structured to allow open discussion.

The Chairman is responsible for the operation, leadership and governance of the Board, ensuring its effectiveness and setting its agenda. The Chief Executive is responsible for the management of the Group’s business and the implementation of Board strategy and policy.

The Board

Find out about the members of the Vodafone Group Plc Board.

Gerard Kleisterlee

Chairman

Board committees: Nominations & Governance Committee

Gerard Kleisterlee became chairman of Vodafone Group Plc on 26 July 2011 at the conclusion of the AGM, having previously served as a non-executive member of the Board.

He retired as president/chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of Management and the Group Management Committee of Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (‘Philips’) on 31 March 2011 after a career with Philips spanning three decades.

Gerard is the deputy chair and senior independent director at Royal Dutch Shell and also chair of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Nomination and Succession Committee. He is a member and chairman of the Supervisory Board of ASML and was previously a member of the Board of Directors of Dell Inc. resigning in October 2013. His was also a member of the Daimler AG Supervisory Board, resigning on 9 April 2014.

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Vittorio Colao

Chief Executive

Board Director since 9 October 2006 and appointed Chief Executive on 29 July 2008.

Vittorio joined the Board as Chief Executive, Europe and Deputy Chief Executive. The early part of his career was spent in the Milan office of McKinsey & Company working on media, telecommunications and industrial goods, with additional responsibility for recruitment.

In 1996 he joined Omnitel Pronto Italia, which subsequently became Vodafone Italy, and he was appointed Chief Executive in 1999. He was then appointed regional Chief Executive Officer, Southern Europe for Vodafone Group Plc in 2001, became a member of the Board in 2002 and was appointed to the role of Regional Chief Executive Officer for Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa for Vodafone in 2003.

In 2004 he left Vodafone to join RCS MediaGroup, the leading Italian publishing company, where he was Chief Executive until he rejoined Vodafone as CEO, Europe. Vittorio is Vice Chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists and a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Compensation Committee at Unilever.

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Nick Read

Chief Executive Officer-Designate

Nick Read was appointed Chief Executive Officer-Designate on 27 July 2018 and will assume the role of Group CEO on 1 October 2018. He was appointed to the Vodafone Group PLC Board on 1 April 2014 and was Group Chief Financial Officer until 27 July 2018.

Since joining Vodafone in 2001, Nick has held a variety of senior roles including CFO, CCO and CEO of Vodafone Limited, the UK operating company. In his role immediately prior to Group CFO, he was the Regional CEO for Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific for five years and was a Board member of the listed companies of Vodacom, Safaricom, and Vodafone Qatar, our subsidiaries in India and Egypt, and our joint ventures, VHA in Australia and Indus Towers in India.

Prior to joining Vodafone, he held senior global finance positions with United Business Media Plc and Federal Express Worldwide.

In June 2018, Nick was appointed to the board of Booking Holdings Inc. as a non-executive director and a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

Nick is a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant, with a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance.

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Margherita Della Valle

Chief Financial Officer

Margherita Della Valle, Chief Financial Officer, was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Vodafone Group PLC Board on 27 July 2018.

Margherita’s previous roles within Vodafone were Deputy Chief Financial Officer from 2015 to 2018, Group Financial Controller, Chief Financial Officer for Vodafone’s European region and Chief Financial Officer for Vodafone Italy. She joined Omnitel Pronto Italia - which later became Vodafone Italy - in 1994 and held various consumer marketing positions in business analytics and customer base management before moving to finance.

Margherita is a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Centrica Plc.

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Sir Crispin Davis

Non-Executive Director

Board director since 28 July 2014

Board committees: Audit & Risk Committee; and Nominations & Governance Committee

Sir Crispin was the Chief Executive of Reed Elsevier plc from 1999 to 2009. He was previously Chief Executive of Aegis Group plc and the Group Managing Director of Guinness Group plc (now Diageo plc).

Sir Crispin began his executive career with Procter & Gamble, where he held a variety of senior management roles including as president of the company’s North American Food Business. In his non-executive career, Sir Crispin was the Chairman of StarBev Consumer Industries B.V. from 2009 to 2012 and was a Non-Executive Director on the board of GlaxoSmithKline plc from 2003 to 2013, where he chaired the Remuneration Committee.

Currently an advisor to CVC Capital Partners, Sir Crispin was knighted in 2004 for services to publishing and information. He is a Non-Executive Director of Rentokil Initial Plc, Hasbro and a Trustee and Member of the University Board for Oxford University.

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Michel Demaré

Non-Executive Director

Board director since 1 February 2018

Board committees: Remuneration Committee

Michel began his career at the multinational banking division of Continental Illinois National Bank of Chicago, before spending 18 years with Dow Chemical in several finance functions. He was the chief financial officer Europe of Baxter International from 2002 to 2005 and chief financial officer at ABB Group from 2005 to 2013, before moving to Syngenta AG, where he was chairman of the board until 2017.

Michel is currently the independent vice chairman at UBS, having joined the board in 2009. He is also a board member of Louis Dreyfus Company Holdings BV, the vice chairman of the supervisory board of the IMD Business School in Lausanne, and an advisory board member of the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich. He holds a degree in applied economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain and an MBA from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

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Dame Clara Furse DBE

Non-Executive Director

Board director since 1 September 2014

Board committees: Audit & Risk Committee

Dame Clara Furse was the Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange Group plc from 2001 to 2009. She was also previously Group Chief Executive of Credit Lyonnais Rouse Ltd and Managing Director, Global Futures and Options at UBS AG.

Dame Clara is a Non-Executive Director on the board of Amadeus IT Group SA. and the Non-Executive Chairman of HSBC UK. Her previous non-executive career includes board appointments at Nomura Holdings Inc (2010 to 2017), Legal & General Group plc (2009 to 2013), Euroclear plc (2002 to 2009), Fortis (2006 to 2008) and LIFFE Holdings plc (1991 to 1999).

She was also appointed to the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee (FPC) from April 2013 to November 2016. A graduate of the London School of Economics, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2008.

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Val Gooding

Non-Executive Director

Board director since 1 February 2014

Board committees: Remuneration Committee & Nominations & Governance Committee

Val Gooding was appointed Senior Independent Director in July 2017. She is Chairman of the Remuneration Committee in addition to being a member of the Nominations & Governance Committee. She is a Non-Executive Director of TUI AG, Chairman of the Lawn Tennis Association Trust and a Trustee of English National Ballet and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In March 2018, she was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Aviva UK Insurance.

In 1996, Val became Managing Director of British United Provident Association (Bupa), and was appointed to the position of CEO in 1998, a role she held for 10 years before stepping down in 2008.

Prior to joining Bupa, Val spent 23 years working with British Airways Plc, where she held a number of positions, including head of Cabin Services, head of Marketing, director of Business Units and director for Asia Pacific.

Previous non-executive positions held by Val include Non-Executive Chairman of Premier Farnell Plc and a Non-Executive Director of Standard Chartered Bank plc, the BBC, J. Sainsbury plc, Compass Group plc, BAA plc and CWC Communications plc. She was also previously a member of the Council of Warwick University, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Warwick Business School and a board member of both the Confederation of British Industry and Association of British Insurers. On 30 April 2014 she resigned her position as lead Non-Executive Director at the Home Office.

She was also President of the International Federation of Health Plans and a Trustee and Deputy Chairman at the British Museum.

Val was awarded a CBE in 2002 for services to business and has honorary doctorates from Warwick, Cranfield, Bournemouth and Middlesex Universities.

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Renée James

Non-Executive Director

Board director since 1 January 2011

Board committees: Remuneration Committee; and Nominations & Governance Committee

Renee is a seasoned technology leader with large scale, broad international operations experience. She is currently the Chairman and CEO of Ampere Computing. Ampere produces high performance processors for compute, storage and other cloud computing needs. She is also an Operating Executive with The Carlyle Group in their Media and Technology practice. In her role with Carlyle, Renee evaluates new technology investments for the firm as well as advises and portfolio companies on their strategic direction and operational efficiency.

Renee previously had a lengthy career with Intel Corporation, where she was the president of the company until her departure in 2016. She currently serves on the boards of Oracle Corporation, Citigroup Inc. and Sabre, and is the chairman of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee to the President of the United States.

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Samuel Jonah

Non-Executive Director

Board director since April 2009

Board committees: Remuneration Committee

Samuel Jonah is Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital (Pty) Limited, an investment holding company in South Africa. He is the Chairman of both Hollard Insurance Company Ltd and Iron Mineral Beneficiation Services and is also a member of the Global Advisory Council of Bank of America, and member of the trustee board of The Investment Climate Facility.

Sam is an adviser to the president of Togo and previously served as advisor to the presidents of South Africa and Ghana.

His previous non-executive director positions include Range Resources Ltd and the Standard Bank of South Africa from 2006-2012. He also worked for Ashanti Goldfields Company Limited, becoming chief executive officer in 1986, and was formerly executive president of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. and executive director of Lonmin Plc.

An honorary knighthood was conferred on him by Her Majesty the Queen in 2003 and in 2006 he was awarded Ghana’s highest national award, the Companion of the Order of the Star.

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Maria Amparo Moraleda Martinez

Non-Executive Director

Board director since 1 June 2017

Board Committees: Audit & Risk Committee

Maria Amparo Moraleda Martinez was the Chief Operating Officer of the international division of Iberdrola from 2009 to 2011. She spent more than 20 years with IBM, becoming President of IBM Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Greece, Israel and Turkey) in 2005.

Amparo is a Non-Executive Director of Airbus Group, CaixaBank and Solvay. Her previous non-executive career includes board appointments at Alstom, Meliá Hotels International and Faurecia.

She is a member of the Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Services and was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2005. She received a degree in Industrial Engineering from Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid and is also an IESE PDG graduate.

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David Nish

Non-Executive Director

Board director since 1 January 2016

Board Committees: Audit & Risk Committee

David Nish is Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee. He is a Non-Executive Director of HSBC Holdings Plc, Audit Committee Chairman of the London Stock Exchange Group Plc and a member of the board of the Zurich Insurance Group.

David was Executive and Group Finance Director of Scottish Power Plc from 1999 to 2005 having joined the company as Deputy Finance Director in 1997. Additionally, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Life Plc from January 2010 to September 2015 having joined the company as Group Finance Director in November 2006. David was also a former Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where he began his career as a trainee.

David was previously a Non-Executive Director of UK Green Investment Bank plc, Northern Foods Plc, Thus Plc, HDFC Life (India), Royal Scottish National Orchestra and was Deputy Chairman of the Association of British Insurers. He was also formerly a member of the City UK Board Advisory Committee and the Financial Services Advisory Board of the Scottish Government.

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