Photo of Serpil Timuray

Serpil Timuray

Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Investments

Serpil Timuray is CEO Vodafone Investments & Strategy and a member of Vodafone Group’s Executive Committee.

She is also the rotating Chairperson of VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands, the Chairperson of Vodafone Turkey, a Non-Executive Director at TPG Telecom in Australia, a Non-Executive Director at VSOL (Vodafone Shared Operations Limited) and a member of Shareholders Committee of Oak Holdings, the shareholder of Vantage Towers. She also chairs Vodafone’s global Inclusion for All (formerly D&I) Steering Committee since 2013.

Serpil is also an Independent Non-Executive Director at British American Tobacco Plc since December 2023. Previously, she has been an Independent Non-Executive Director at Danone Plc during April 2015-April 2023 and the chair of Danone Board’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.

Serpil joined Vodafone in January 2009 as the CEO of Turkey and was appointed to Vodafone Group Executive Committee in January 2014. Her previous roles at Vodafone Group’s Executive Committee were CEO of Europe Cluster, Group Chief Commercial Operations and Strategy Officer, and Regional CEO of AMAP (Africa, Middle East, Asia, Pacific), when she has also served as a board member in the listed companies: Vodacom Group, Safaricom and Vodafone Qatar. Prior to joining Vodafone, Serpil spent 10 years at Danone Plc latterly as the CEO of Danone Dairy Turkey. She began her career in 1991 at Procter & Gamble, where she held several marketing roles for 8 years latterly as a member of the Executive Committee in Turkey.

Serpil has been serving at the boards of non-profit organisations since 2002. She is the Founding Chair of ChangeTheFace Alliance as an industry-wide global cooperation to accelerate diversity and inclusion in technology sector and has been awarded GSMA’s “Diversity in Tech Outstanding Achievement GLOMO Award” in 2022 for this initiation. She is a Board Member of Digital Leaders Europe at WEF, a Board Member of DEIK DTIK (Global Turkish Business Council) and the UK Representative of DTIK. She has served as a member of the Board of GSMA (Global Mobile Communications Association) and chaired the GSMA Board’s Public Policy Committee. She has served as a member of Turkey President/Prime Minister’s Investment Advisory Council since 2013, the Chairperson of YASED (Foreign Direct Investors Association in Turkey), Vice-Chairperson of Turkish-British Business Council of DEIK, and Vice-Chairperson of SETBIR (Dairy & Meat Producers Association in Turkey). She has been a member of Board of Trustees at Koc University and a member of the Advisory Board of Contemporary Istanbul.

Serpil has been recognised in various international rankings, including HERoes “100 Women Executives Role Model List” six times, ranking 4th in 2024, Financial Times HERoes “Champions of Women in Business” ranking 20th in 2018, Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women International” ranking 27th in 2017 and Newsweek’s “World’s 125 Women of Impact” ranking 79th in 2013. She has been nominated as “The Global Turkish Businessperson” by DTIK and awarded by Turkey’s President in 2023, elected as “The Global Turkish Professional” twice in 2018 and 2021, and as “The Professional of the Year in Turkey” three times during 2010-2013. She has been nominated as a “Young Global Leader” (YGL) of World Economic Forum in 2009 and is currently a member of the YGL Alumni.

A British and Turkish citizen, she was born in Istanbul and is living in London. She is married, mother of one son, and is a graduate of Business Management at Bogazici University.