Vodafone targets Philips CEO

The chief executive of Philips is top of a shortlist of possible successors to Sir John Bond as chairman of the mobile phone giant Vodafone. Gerard Kleisterlee is set to step down from the Dutch electronics giant in March and could replace Sir John at the telecoms group's annual meeting this summer. Sir John faced down a shareholder rebellion, led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund, last summer after Vodafone took a £2bn writedown on its Indian unit.