Vodafone Group announced that Nick Jeffery will step down as CEO of Vodafone UK in February 2021 to take up a new position outside of the company. Separately, US fixed operator Frontier Communications announced that Jeffrey will be its new CEO from March.
Jeffery will be replaced as Vodafone UK CEO by Ahmed Essam, currently Group Chief Commercial Operations & Strategy Officer. Essam will take up his new post on 01 February 2021, with Jeffery leaving the company on 15 February.
After serving out his notice period, Jeffery will take up the position at Frontier from 01 March, replacing Bernie Han. Han has led the company for the past year and will remain a member of Frontier's board until the company completes its Chapter 11 debt restructuring process. That is expected in early 2021, after which Jeffery will join the board.
Jeffery served as UK CEO since September 2016 and before that held group positions at Vodafone, including head of the enterprise business. Prior to Vodafone, he worked at Ciena and Cable & Wireless. Frontier said his nearly 30 years of experience should help the company embark on its new strategy to reposition as a fibre broadband provider.
His replacement Essam first joined Vodafone in 1999 and has held many senior roles, including CEO of the Europe Cluster, CEO of Vodafone Egypt, Commercial Director for Vodafone's Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific region, plus Group and local Commercial functions including Consumer Business and Customer Care.
Alex Froment-Curtil will take over Essam's position as Group Chief Commercial Officer and will join the Vodafone Group Executive Committee effective 1 February. He joined Vodafone in 2003 working at the Group level and in markets including CEO of Vodafone Hungary, Egypt and Turkey.
