Vodafone Group announced a reorganisation of its management structure, taking the group form three to two regional divisions, appointing a new chief commercial officer and separating management of its minority holdings. From 1 October, the company will work based on two operating regions. These are Europe, compiring all the countries of the previous Europe division plus the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Turkey; and Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific, comprising all emerging economies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, plus Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Michel Combes will remain regional CEO in charge of the Europe division, and Nick Read, the CEO of the former Asia Pacific and Middle East division, will head up the new Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific unit. The company's minority holdings, in Verizon Wireless, SFR, Polkomtel and Bharti Holding, will be managed outside the regional structure, and the group CEO, CFO and strategic business director will be in charge of "effecting strategies to maximize shareholder value" from the investments, the company said. The Group Marketing, Vodafone Business Services, Vodafone Global Enterprise, Partner Markets and other commercial units will be combined into a new organization, Group Commercial, which will be responsible for all commercial activity. This unit will be headed by Morten Lundal as group Chief Commercial Officer. Lundal is the former CEO of the Central Europe and Africa regional division. All technology functions in Vodafone's operating companies will report into Group Technology. Steve Pusey, as group CTO, will report directly to the group CEO. Vodafone said it will report on the basis of the new organisation structure for the second half of this financial year.
