Vodafone appoints global brand chief

Vodafone has appointed David Erixon as its global brand chief to replace Neil Simpson, who left the telecoms giant earlier this year.

Simpson, who was the mobile giant’s global brand marketing director, left in June as part of the restructure triggered when Peter Bamford was ousted as chief marketing officer.

It is not clear what title Erixon, who was previously an executive in Vodafone’s communications strategy team, will be given but a spokesman confirms he has taken on Simpson’s responsibilities. Erixon will report to global director of marketing and brand communications David Wheldon.

Vodafone decided to devolve centralised responsibility for marketing strategy to individual territories earlier this year following a review of its marketing function. The move led to 200 redundancies in its group marketing department.

Global consumer marketing director Frank Rovekamp was promoted to replace Bamford as part of a restructure that saw the creation of three new business units: Vodafone Europe, a rest of the world division, and a new business and innovation office.

But Bill Morrow, who was appointed to run Vodafone Europe, announced last month that he was leaving the company to return to the US for “urgent family reasons”.

Vodafone’s board has just reappointed chief executive Arun Sarin despite a shareholder poll in which 10% of votes cast were against his re-election.