Vodafone Ireland CEO Charles Butterworth, who in the past three years led the company in Ireland to 2.3 million customers, is to move back to Vodafone Group in July and will be succeeded by a former Dutch Marine, Jeroen Hoencamp.
Under Butterworth, Vodafone Ireland has maintained its market leading position in providing total communication services to more than 2.33 million people.
The company also expanded to become the second-largest provider of fixed-line services, with nearly 200,000 customers following the launch of Vodafone at Home in 2007, and the acquisition of BT’s consumer retail and small business customer base in 2009.
Despite challenging trading conditions, Vodafone Ireland continues to invest and innovate. Vodafone entered the fixed-line business in late 2007 with the acquisition of Perlico.
Vodafone was the first operator in Ireland to enable HSPA+, or 3.5G technology in February 2010. The roll out has already commenced in Dublin and will extend to Cork and other major urban areas in the coming quarter. The 3.5G technology will enable the network with a 21Mbps data download speed capability.
Vodafone’s recent launch of the iPhone was highly successful, with more than 40,000 iPhones on the network within two weeks of launch.
About Jeroen Hoencamp
Today, Vodafone Group has announced that Hoencamp will be appointed CEO of Vodafone Ireland with effect from 1 July 2010.
Hoencamp joins from Vodafone Netherlands, where he was Director Enterprise since 2006 and member of the General Management Board for the last six years.
He joined Vodafone Netherlands in 1998 and held senior management positions in sales, retail, and corporate marketing.
Hoencamp spent the earlier part of his career in Curacao, where he worked as an officer in the Royal Dutch Marine Corps and in Atlanta (USA) as senior marketing representative at Canon Southern Copy Machines, Inc., before moving to the Netherlands in 1994 to work in senior marketing and sales positions for Thorn EMI/Skala Home Electronics BV.
“I very much enjoyed my three years as CEO in Ireland,” Butterworth said. “I know Jeroen will be a great CEO for Vodafone Ireland and will lead the company to continued success.”
Michel Combes, Vodafone Europe CEO, said, “I would like to thank Charles for his strong leadership over the past few years and with Vodafone Ireland firmly positioned as the leading provider of communications services across both mobile and fixed, it is a good time to welcome Jeroen into his new role to take the company forward in the years ahead.”
By John Kennedy
Photo: Outgoing Vodafone Ireland CEO Charles Butterworth
