Vodafone CEO Anne O'Leary moves to Meta

Anne O'Leary, CEO of Vodafone Ireland Pic:Naoise Culhane

Vodafone Ireland CEO Anne O’Leary will leave her post to join Facebook's owner Meta as its new VP for the mid-market business division for the Europe, Middle-East and Africa region.

Meta announced Ms O’Leary’s move and added that she will join the company officially in September 2022.

“After 14 wonderful years at Vodafone, I am hugely excited to start a new chapter working with the Meta team,” said Ms O’Leary.

“In an ever more competitive digital economy, I look forward to connecting with, and supporting, small and medium businesses across EMEA to evolve with digital change, embrace transformation and the tools that will help them to grow and scale their businesses across the world," she added.

While with Vodafone, Ms O'Leary oversaw the nationwide rollout of 4G and 5G. Prior to working with Vodafone, she was the Managing Director of BT Ireland.

Vodafone have not yet announced who Ms O’Leary’s successor will be.

This is one of two big announcements recently made by Meta in relation to its Irish staff.

While Meta is gaining Munster Technological University graduate Ms O’Leary, Corkman Gareth Lambe will leave the company later this year.

His role with Meta, which he is still serving out, is Head of Meta Ireland and VP for international business planning and operations.