The exit of Sir Christopher Gent from the chief executive post at Vodafone marks a milestone for the company and the industry. Unlike many of his counterparts, Gent is stepping down from his post rather than being forced out. Gent, named RCR Wireless News Person of the Year in 2000, has done what many of his colleagues have not-survived in this industry in good times and bad.
Before Christmas, Gent said he would retire from the world’s largest wireless operator on July 30, immediately following Vodafone’s annual general meeting. Vodafone announced that Arun Sarin, who is currently chief executive of San Francisco-based Accel-KKR Telecom and non-executive director at Vodafone, would replace Gent as head of Vodafone. Sarin also serves on the boards of Charles Schwab, Cisco Systems and Gap.
Sarin was formerly president and chief operating officer of AirTouch Communications until 1999 and then was named chief executive of the Americas and Asia Region of Vodafone until 2000, when Vodafone’s U.S. operations were merged to form Verizon Wireless Inc. He also had a stint as CEO of wireless software supplier InfoSpace for nine months after leaving his first Vodafone post.
Sarin, born in India and a U.S. citizen, will have the initial task of integrating himself into the London financial scene, where he is virtually an unknown. Whether Sarin will continue Gent’s aggressive managerial style remains to be seen, but although he is an unknown outside the industry, he is well respected in the U.S. wireless arena.
Gent is leaving on a strong note, with the company reporting strong financials for the first half of the fiscal year at end-September. Gent evolved a disparate group of operators into a worldwide brand, with the Vodafone logo seen from soccer stadiums in Spain to billboards in Australia. He has steadily increased revenue from data and successfully repositioned analysts’ attention on ARPU instead of customer adds at the time saturation hit many markets. He oversaw the takeover of AirTouch in the United States and Germany’s Mannesmann during the merger-and-acquisition frenzy of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Gent’s only real stumbling block has been Vivendi thwarting his recent attempt to take control of France’s Cegetel, which would have given the operator control in all five of Western Europe’s top markets. Ironically, an alliance with Vivendi on the now-defunct Vizzavi venture in 2000 helped Vodafone lock up its hostile takeover of Mannesmann. The industry makes for strange and often changing bedfellows.
My lingering question is what does the leader of a telecom firm do when he leaves the industry? Gent’s a big fan of the game of cricket, but I doubt anyone who’s spent the last five years putting together billion-dollar acquisitions will be content organizing pick-up games instead.
