Margherita Della Valle made Vodafone’s first permanent female chief executive
Vodafone has its first permanent female chief executive after interim boss Margherita Della Valle was confirmed in the role, tasked with steering the telecoms group through its turnaround.
She has been chief financial officer since July 2018 and also took the top job on a temporary basis in December, replacing Nick Read, a two-decade Vodafone veteran who ran the company for four years. Read was ousted after failing to reverse a 40%-plus fall in the telecoms company’s share price during his tenure.
As well as running the company, Della Valle will continue as chief financial officer until a new CFO is appointed, with an external search under way. She has worked for Vodafone in the UK and Italy for almost three decades, and is one of only 10 female chief executives at the UK’s top 100 listed companies.
The others are Debra Crew at the world’s biggest spirits maker Diageo, who takes the helm on 1 July, Dame Alison Rose at the bank NatWest, Amanda Blanc at the insurer Aviva, Dame Emma Walmsley at the drugmaker GSK, Jette Nygaard-Andersen at the gambling firm Entain, Liv Garfield at the water company Severn Trent, Jennie Daly at the housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, Milena Mondini de Focatiis at the insurer Admiral, and Louise Beardmore, who has just taken over at United Utilities, the UK’s largest listed water company.
Vodafone, which has about 18 million mobile customers in the UK,launched a €1bn cost-cutting plan in November. So far this year, it has cut several hundred jobs at its London headquarters, as well as 1,300 roles in Germany and 1,000 in Italy.
Faced with soaring energy costs, the firm raised its prices for UK customers by 14.4% at the start of this month – based on theincrease in the consumer prices index measure of
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