Margherita Della Valle, who had assumed the leadership of the Vodafone group ad interim following the departure of Nick Read, has been appointed group chief executive. “The board and I were impressed by his pace and determination to initiate the necessary transformation of Vodafone,” said Jean-François van Boxmeer, president of the Vodafone Group. Margherita has my and the Board’s full support for her plans for Vodafone to provide a better customer experience, become a simpler company and accelerate growth ».
Vodafone “to realize its potential, it must change”. It is Margherita Della Valle’s first statement after her appointment. Vodafone «has a unique position in Europe and Africa with strong customer relationships, networks and people. We know we can do better. My goal will be to improve the service for our customers, simplify our business and grow».
In addition to being named group chief executive, Margherita Della Valle will also continue to work as group chief financial officer until an external search for a new chief financial officer is completed.
Della Valle, 58 years old, after graduating from Bocconi in Economic and Social Sciences in 1988. He worked for four years in Montedison’s study and strategic planning office, where he prepared macro analyzes on strategic markets for the agro-food and chemical industries and where he estimated repercussions and impacts of the free market agreements that mark the early 1990s, the onset of the golden decade of globalisation. Thus, it becomes the 25th registration number of Omnitel, a company which in 2001 became part of the British group.
In Vodafone Margherita della Valle held various roles, from marketing to customer management up to finance. Since then he climbed the top ranks of the Vodafone Group, holding the role of CFO for Vodafone Italia from 2004 to 2007, deputy chief financial officer of the Vodafone Group from 2015 to 2018, until he became CFO of the group in 2018 concurrently with the exit from Vodafone of the CEO Vittorio Colao replaced by the then CFO Nick Read. On December 5 of last year, the interim assignment to replace Nick Read arrives. Position now no longer on an interim basis.