South Seas call for Vodafone chief

By RICHARD BRADDELL

Vodafone New Zealand's managing director, John Rohan, has been given responsibility for the Pacific Islands as part of a management rejig which sees him hand over the New Zealand reins to sales, marketing and operations director Grahame Maher.

Mr Rohan will remain a director of Vodafone NZ and retain responsibility for Government relations and the third generation spectrum auction.

Mr Rohan becomes director, Pacific Islands, his main responsibility being Vodafone's 49 per cent stake in a Fijian mobile operation that has 36,000 customers. He will be based at Vodafone Pacific's Sydney office and his appointment takes effect on January 1.

He dismissed the suggestion that his new job was a move sideways, saying that the change to his salary from his "move upstairs" to "a much broader job" did not support that contention.

Mr Rohan took charge of Vodafone New Zealand in December 1998, after it had been bought for $750 million from BellSouth.

Since then, customer numbers have grown five-fold to 638,000 and its market share has risen to 60 per cent.

The company has been strongly focused on marketing and has tended to avoid the public arguments about the regulatory regime that characterised BellSouth's ownership.

It has also invested heavily in the network, with the addition of 150 new base stations in the first year against five in the last year of BellSouth's management.

Mr Maher was seconded to Vodafone New Zealand on the takeover of BellSouth, initially as sales and marketing director.