Guillaume Boutin, who has been with the Proximus Group for seven years and has held the role of CEO since December 2019, will leave the company in mid-May to join the British telecoms group Vodafone as CEO of Vodafone Investments & Strategy. He confided that he had already been approached several months ago by his future employer. However, this approach came after his mandate as CEO of Proximus had been extended during the summer.

During a press conference on 7 February 2025, Boutin took the opportunity to point out that his remuneration at Proximus was not at the top end of the range of what the bosses of European technology companies earn on average.

"It's never an easy decision to make when you leave a company that you've given everything to for seven years," he stated. "We've had a fantastic journey over seven years, and the company has reached a level it's never reached before, with a vision and an industrial plan that will have an impact for at least another 50 years! So there is some regret in leaving this wonderful adventure with Proximus. But I'm leaving at a time when the company is well equipped to face the challenges of the future.”

The CEO will remain in his post until mid-May, and the Proximus board of directors will soon start looking for his successor. Stefaan De Clerck, chairman of the board of directors, has hinted that a successor may not yet be appointed by May. If so, an interim CEO will be appointed internally. De Clerck said the departure is a "huge promotion" for Boutin. It takes him from a Belgian league team to a Premier League side, to "the biggest team in the world", he said. Proximus was proud that its boss has been approached.

De Clerck insisted that he was not at all aware that his CEO had been approached by Vodafone. "It's his decision, not ours. I did everything I could to try and keep our best player." For the Proximus chairman, it is now a matter of "convincing the new [Belgian] government, as majority shareholder, of the relevance of our strategy". He hopes that the government's vision will be in unison and that it will share the operator's strategic vision. Meetings, which will include the French CEO, the "architect" of this vision and of the current industrial plan, are also scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday with the ministers responsible, Vanessa Matz (Les Engagés) for public enterprises and Jan Jambon (N-VA) for finance and overseeing SFPIM, the financial arm of the federal state.

Read the original French-language version of this news report /