Vittorio Colao

Mr Colao left Vodafone last September 2018 after a decade in charge. His tenure was defined by a series of blockbuster deals including the $130bn sale of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless in 2013 and last year’s $18bn takeover of Liberty Global’s German and eastern European cable networks, which transformed the company into Europe’s largest broadband provider. Mr Colao, who worked at consultancy McKinsey before joining the telecoms industry, has been linked to a number of jobs since leaving Vodafone. He said he went to around 180 meetings over nine months as he explored roles ranging from chief executive and chairman posts at a variety of companies to non-profit roles and private equity roles. He is on the boards of Unilever and Verizon but said he would turn down other positions now he has joined General Atlantic. Mr Colao joins Henri de Castries, the former chairman and chief executive of Axa, and Achim Berg, a former Bertelsmann executive, as prominent European business leaders now working at the US firm.