Europe's biggest mobile phone firm, Vodafone Group, has said that its chief executive, Chris Gent, will step down in July next year and be replaced by Arun Sarin, head of US-based Accel-KKR Telecom.
The company VOD.L said Gent, who took the helm in 1997 and steered the company through some blockbuster acquisitions, had already expressed his wish to retire from the top job, and that Sarin's appointment was part of a "carefully orchestrated succession".