Sky veteran Stephen van Rooyen named CEO of VodafoneZiggo

Former Sky UK & Ireland boss Stephen van Rooyen has been named chief executive officer of VodafoneZiggo, effective from September 2024.

Van Rooyen succeeds Jeroen Hoencamp, who announced his retirement in October 2023 following 25 years at Vodafone.

Van Rooyen spent more than 17 years at Sky, where he was most recently CEO of Sky UK & Ireland and chief commercial officer for the Sky Group.

The Sky veteran played a key role across various major product launches at the company, including Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband, NOW TV as well as the evolution of Sky’s TV platforms, Sky Q, Sky Glass, and Sky Stream. He was also instrumental in Sky’s content and programming, leading Sky Sports, Sky Cinema and all Sky channels.

He also held roles across the pay TV giant in several other countries in Europe including Germany, Italy, Austria and Switzerland.

Hoencamp who left the the company this month was CEO of VodafoneZiggo since the inception of Liberty Global’s Dutch joint venture with Vodafone in 2016. VodafoneZiggo’s chief financial officer, Ritchy Drost will serve as interim CEO until van Rooyen joins the company later this year. He will be posted in The Netherlands, at the company’s Utrecht headquarters.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group chief executive, said: “Having held senior commercial and leadership roles at Sky, Stephen brings considerable expertise of both the telecoms and media sectors in Europe. We wish him every success when he takes over in September. 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.”

Van Rooyen said: “I’m incredibly excited to join the VodafoneZiggo family. Having been based in London for many years, I look forward to a new experience, for both me and my family, living and working in The Netherlands.”