Julian Horn-Smith

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Sir Julian Horn-Smith was Deputy Chief Executive of Vodafone Group Plc until July 2006. Since September 2006, he has been Chairman of The Sage Group.

Sir Horn-Smith enjoyed an outstanding career at Vodafone going back to the very earliest days of the creation of the UK network more than 20 years ago. He is one of the founding fathers of the mobile business and his contribution to Vodafone has been immense. In 2004 Julian received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to international telecommunications.

Julian joined Vodafone in 1984 as a Marketing Executive in the UK and has held a number of senior posts including Chief Operating Officer.

During his career with the company, he has been closely involved in many of Vodafone's major transactions. These included the formation of Vodafone AirTouch in 1999 as a result of the merger of the UK and U.S. businesses to create one of the top 25 companies in the world and the agreement to acquire Mannesmann in 2000, almost doubling the size of the Vodafone Group to make it the world's largest mobile telecommunications company.

In 1996 he was appointed to the Vodafone Group Plc Board and in 2005 became Deputy Chief Executive, taking responsibility for global business development.