Vodafone appoints new CEO of Cable & Wireless Worldwide

Vodafone today announced a new CEO for Cable & Wireless Worldwide (C&WW) following its acquisition of the global telecoms giant.

Nick Jeffrey, who began his career back in 1991 at C&WW, will take on the role with immediate effect, leaving his current post as the head of Vodafone’s global enterprise business.

His replacement will be the enterprise business unit director of Vodafone Germany, Jan Geldmacher, who will also begin his new job straight away.

Jeffrey will work with Vodafone UK CEO Guy Laurence to integrate both C&WW’s commercial and back office operations into the Vodafone group, while the acquired company’s network and technology assets will be taken over by Vodafone CTO Steve Pusey.

This will leave C&WW’s CEO, Gavin Darby, out of a job, but he will work with Jeffrey to help the transfer of power until October.

The sell-off of the firm will also see its CFO, Ian Gibson, acting CTO, Dave Broady, and acting human resources (HR) director, Jane Little, move on, to be replaced by Vodafone Turkey’s CFO Diego Galli as finance director, Vodafone network services unit director John Thompson as technology director, and Vodafone Netherlands’ HR director Francesco Bianco as C&WW’s HR director.

Mark Allison, currently head of the Vodafone global enterprise commercial team, will take on the job of integration director. Again, all these roles will begin with immediate effect.

“Nick [Jeffrey] is an excellent leader with a deep understanding of enterprise customers' needs, a track record in value creation and familiarity with C&WW's business,” said Vittorio Colao, CEO of the Vodafone group. “Similarly, with his strong background in multinational client leadership, Jan [Geldmacher] will be well-placed to succeed Nick as CEO of Vodafone Global Enterprise.”

Vodafone bought C&WW in April this year for £1.04bn. India’s Tata Communications was though to be the front runner, but it dropped out of the bid just a week before the deal was finalised.