Education
Whent was educated at Street Mary"s College, Southampton.
founder chief executive of Vodafone
Whent was educated at Street Mary"s College, Southampton.
Gerald Arthur Whent was the youngest of four children of Major Albert Whent, of the Royal Artillery stationed in Palestine from 1938. In 1980, Sir Ernest Harrison Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, chairman of Racal Electronics plc"s, the United Kingdom"s largest maker of military radio technology, agreed a deal with Lord Weinstock of General Electric Company plc to allow Racal to access some of General Electric"s tactical battlefield radio technology. Briefing Whent as the head of Racal"s military radio division, Harrison told Whent to drive the company into commercial mobile radio.
Whent visited General Electric"s factory in Virginia, United States of America in 1980.
Vodafone was launched on 1 January 1985. Racal Strategic Radio was renamed Racal Telecommunications Group Limited in 1985.
On 29 December 1986, Racal Electronics bought out the minority shareholders of Vodafone for Great Britain£110 million. Under stock market pressure to realise full value for shareholders (the mobile unit was being valued at the same amount as the whole Racal group), in September 1988, the company was again renamed Racal Telecom, and on 26 October 1988, Racal Electronics floated 20% of the company.
The flotation valued Racal Telecom at Great Britain£1.7 billion.
On 16 September 1991, Racal Telecom was demerged from Racal Electronics as Vodafone Group. Under Whent, over the next few years Vodafone grew to become the United Kingdom"s Market Leader. In his whole service on the board as Chief Executive Officer, Whent turned Vodafone into a standalone mobile communications business, with a stock market capitalisation of around £8bn.
In 1982, Racal"s newly formed subsidiary Racal Strategic Radio Limited under Chief Executive Officer Whent, won one of two United Kingdom cellular telephone network licences. The other going to British Telecom The network, known as Racal Vodafone was 80% owned by Racal, with Millicom and the Hambros Technology Trust owning 15% and 5% respectively.
