Vodafone Group has named its chief digital and IT officer Scott Petty as the replacement for influential CTO Johan Wibergh, who handed in his notice after almost eight years in the role.
Wibergh will retire from the company on 31 December. In a statement, Vodafone noted the CTO had been invaluable to its growth, highlighting his involvement in driving key strategies including the creation of a single pan-European technology team and upping the level of in-house software knowledge.
Vodafone also credited Wibergh’s role in its 5G deployment “and spearheading the build of new digital platforms”.
Alongside Petty, Vodafone named Alberto Ripepi as chief network officer, effective from 1 January 2023. CEO Nick Read stated the pair will jointly lead its technology team.
Vodafone’s general counsel and company secretary Rosemary Martin is also moving on, with the company tapping Maaike de Bie, who occupies the same role with airline Easyjet, as her replacement from 1 March 2023.
Read noted Wibergh and Martin made “significant contributions” to Vodafone, “through strong, diverse and innovative teams”.
Ghana
Meanwhile, Vodafone Group is selling it 70% majority shares in Vodafone Ghana, but the deal has been stalled because the 30% minority shareholder, government of Ghana claims the chosen buyer, Telecel Group lacks the technical and financial muscle to run the company.
Telecel has since returned to the negotiation table with the government of Ghana through industry regulator, National Communications Authority (NCA).
It is still not clear how that negotiation is going but Telecel has already indicated it has enough money to pay Vodafone Group in cash and also invest some US$500 million into the Ghana operations in the first three years.
