Vodafone
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Charles Butterworth, CEO, Vodafone Ireland
Charles Butterworth is Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Ireland, having joined the company in July 2007 from Vodafone Group headquarters in the UK.
He joined Vodafone Group as the Director of Group Corporate Finance in May 2002, where he managed and co-ordinated merger and acquisition activity. In 2004, he was appointed as Group Investor Relations Director. In this role, he was responsible for orchestrating an active dialogue with investors and analysts, covering all aspects of Vodafone’s business including operational strategy and financial performance.
Before joining Vodafone Group, Butterworth spent nine years with UBS investment bank where he specialised in the telecoms sector, and in particular mobile. He is currently a board member of Vodafone Italy and Arcor in Germany.
Since becoming CEO, Butterworth has lead Vodafone Ireland’s move into the fixed-line space with the acquisition of Perlico and the launch of Vodafone at Home in 2007 and the acquisition of BT's retail, consumer and small business space in 2009.
Vodafone is Ireland's leading total communications provider, with 2.15 million mobile customers comprising business and personal. In addition, the company has 186,000 fixed-line customers, bringing Vodafone Ireland’s total telecoms base to 2.33 million as of 31 December, 2009.
About Vodafone
The Irish operations of global telecoms company Vodafone date back to 2001, when it acquired mobile communications company, Eircell. The operator now employs approximately 1,200 people in the Republic across its two locations in Dublin and Dundalk, Co Louth.
Vodafone is Ireland’s leading mobile communications operator with over 2.26 million customers nationwide, and a mobile communications market share of approximately 41pc.
Following its acquisition of Perlico in November 2007, the company has also become one of the largest broadband providers in the Irish market, with in excess of 83,000 DSL customers. Vodafone is now Ireland’s second largest broadband provider with approximately 190,000 fixed and mobile broadband customers.
Having introduced Ireland’s first 3G broadband network, which provides nationwide mobile broadband access, Vodafone remains at the cutting edge of innovation in Ireland. To date, it has invested approximately €800m in developing 3G services in Ireland as part of a €1bn investment programme.
The company also recently announced a €17m, 15-year Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) access deal with MANs provider E-net, which will provide high-capacity fibre-optic broadband connectivity to a large proportion of Vodafone Ireland’s regional and rural transmission sites across the country.
As part of the Vodafone Group, Vodafone Ireland is a member of the world's largest mobile community, which, as of 31 December 2008, had 289 million customers worldwide, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the US.
