Vodafone Group and Liberty Global have announced that Stephen van Rooyen has been appointed CEO of Dutch telco VodafoneZiggo.

van Rooyen, who was the CEO of Sky UK & Ireland and CEO for the Sky Group, will take on the role from September 2024.

van Rooyen will be the long-term replacement for previous VodafoneZiggo CEO Jeroen Hoencamp, who is retiring.

Ritchy Drost, VodafoneZiggo’s chief financial officer, will lead VodafoneZiggo as interim CEO until van Rooyen joins in September.

van Rooyen previously spent 17 years working for Sky in the UK and several other European countries, including Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, and Switzerland.

"Having held senior commercial and leadership roles at Sky, Stephen brings considerable expertise of both the telecoms and media sectors in Europe," said Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group chief executive.

"In the meantime, we are delighted that Ritchy will lead the company in an interim role and we wholeheartedly thank Jeroen, who has expertly steered VodafoneZiggo for success since he took the reins eight years ago.”

Hoencamp announced his planned retirement in October, before departing the telco earlier this month.

VodafoneZiggo is a JV founded in 2016 between two telcos Vodafone Netherlands and Ziggo. The telco serves around six million mobile subscribers.