Sir Christopher Charles Gent HonFREng (born 10 May 1948) is a British businessman, He is the former chief executive officer of Vodafone, a British multinational mobile phone company. Until 2015, he served as the non-exec chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, the world's fourth largest pharmaceutical company. Early life Born in 1948 in Bridgemary Hants, Gent was raised in Gosport, Hampshire. He attended Tenison's School, then a grammar school in Kennington. His father, who had served in the Royal Navy, died when he was at school. He is one of four brothers (Rod, Chris, Jeremy and Pete). Career He first worked for the National Westminster Bank in 1971 as a management trainee, then as a computer services manager at Schroders. In 1979 he became the managing director of Baric, a company owned by ICL and Barclays. In 1985 Gent joined Racal Electronics' Vodafone subsidiary as managing director of British operations as Vodafone prepared to launch its retail mobile phone operations. Vodafone Gent was widely credited with transforming Vodafone from a small subsidiary of Racal, a British electronics company, into a global giant, and with engineering Vodafone's 178 billion pound ($212 billion) purchase of Germany's Mannesmann in 2000. He became its managing director in January 1985 and its chief executive officer (taking over from Sir Gerald Whent) in January 1997. In 2001, Gent was an advocate of the United Kingdom joining the euro. After retiring from Vodafone in July 2003, Gent was awarded the honorary title of company's president for life on his departure as a mark of his achievement in developing the company, until his resignation from that position in March 2006. The title carried no salary, nor any advisory responsibilities, but was a symbolic link to the business. He was formerly chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, a British multinational pharmaceutical company, joining in June 2004, becoming chairman on 1 January 2005, a position he held until May 2015. From October 2005 to October 2006 he served on the Tax Reform Commission, established by the then Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP. Gent was a non-executive director of Lehman Brothers and one of four members of the compensation committee of the board that authorised the payout for its CEO, Dick Fuld, who received $34 million compensation in 2007 and $40.5 million in 2006. ConvaTec In August 2022, The Financial Conduct Authority fined Sir Christopher Gent £80,000 for unlawfully disclosing inside information, in his