Vodacom Group chief financial officer Rob Shuter has been named as new CEO of Vodafone in The Netherlands. He will take up the new position on 1 March 2012, and will step down as a director of Vodacom at that time.

Shuter, who had previously worked at Nedbank, will have been at Vodacom for 20 months, having joined the group on 1 July 2010. Group chairman Peter Moyo says Shuter will be “sorely missed” but had been presented with an “exciting opportunity as CEO of Vodafone Netherlands and we wish him much success in his new role”.

“Vodacom’s tie-up with Vodafone creates other growth and development opportunities for the people of Vodacom,” Moyo says.

Shuter is the second top executive that Vodacom has lost in the past year. Earlier this year, the former MD of Vodacom SA, Shameel Joosub, was appointed as CEO of Vodafone’s operations in Spain.

At the same time, Vodacom has announced that independent nonexecutive director Tom Boardman, a former CEO of Nedbank, stepped down at the end of last month. Boardman was chairman of the audit, risk and compliance committee and a member of the remuneration committee.

In addition, Morten Lundal, a Vodafone representative on the board, stepped down on Thursday and is being replaced by Karen Witts with immediate effect.

Vodacom says a process has “been initiated” to find replacement candidates for both Shuter and Boardman. — Staff reporter, TechCentral