Ken Hydon, 59, started out in industrial, pharmaceutical and electronics industry before helping to build Newbury’s Vodafone into a £30bn global business.

Starting life as a division of military communications firm Racal, Vodafone expanded rapidly in the early 90s as texting grew in popularity, and went global later in the decade when Sir Chris Gent took over from founder Gerry Whent.

Mr Hydon helped Vodafone raise huge funds to finance a global takeover of rivals in more than 20 countries, including Mannesmann in Germany, which earned Mr Hydon a £2.4m bonus.

Mr Hydon’s basic salary is £733,000 a year, but the final package has reached around £3m. He is also a non-executive director of Tesco and Reckitt Benckiser.

His role on the 15-man executive committee will be taken on by Andy Halford, who joined in 1999, and was previously finance director for Vodafone’s US subsidiary.