By Najat Kantouar

Vodafone Group appointed Pilar Lopez as its next chief financial officer, putting a Microsoft executive with a telecommunications background in charge of the company's finances as it seeks to rein in debt.

The U.K.-based telecom group said Thursday that Lopez will succeed Luka Mucic, who is leaving to become chief executive of German property company Vonovia.

Lopez, who will join Vodafone on Oct. 1 and formally start as CFO and board member on Dec. 1, spent the past decade at U.S. tech giant Microsoft, where she held several positions and was more recently in charge of the company's partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group.

Prior to that, she worked at Spain's Telefonica for 16 years and served as CFO for the group's European business and its U.K. arm O2.

Her appointment comes after Vodafone in May said Mucic would step down after two years with the company. He joined in 2023 from German software giant SAP after his predecessor, Margherita Della Valle, was promoted to the CEO role.

Over the past two years, Vodafone underwent a major overhaul of its portfolio, selling its businesses in Italy and Spain and merging its U.K. unit with rival Three.

The moves allowed the company to significantly reduce its debt pile and left it more focused on its biggest market, Germany, where the company recently struggled with top-line pressures due to regulatory changes. Vodafone's net debt stood at 22.4 billion euros ($25.72 billion) at March 31, down from 33.2 billion euros a year before.

Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 19, 2025 03:38 ET (07:38 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.