Nick Read, currently the chief executive officer (CEO) of telecom giant Vodafone is going to step down by the year-end. Read will hand over the reigns to Margherita Della Valle, who will be the interim CEO of the telecom company. Valle is currently the finance director of the company. The development has been shared by Reuters. Read's tenure of four years will come to an end at the end of this year. He led the company during one of the worst phases of human history - the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Read, Vodafone sold assets to increase the business focus on Africa and Europe. However, since the time Read took over in October 2018, Vodafone's shares are 40% down.
Read said in a statement that he agrees with the board that it is the right time to hand over the company to a new leader who can build on Vodafone's strengths and capture significant opportunities ahead. The board has already started looking for a new CEO for the company. Only recently, Vodafone cut its outlook for the full year because of rising energy costs and deteriorating performance in the big European markets of Italy, Spain and Germany.
