[6] In 1996 Colao joined Omnitel Pronto Italia, rising to chief operating officer before its take over to become Vodafone Italy.

[2] During his time in office, Vodafone sold out of the United States with a $130 billion exit from a joint venture with Verizon[10] and bought the German and eastern European cable networks of Liberty Global for $18 billion (turning Vodafone into Europe's largest broadband provider).

[11] In May 2018, Colao announced that he would step down as Vodafone CEO effective October 2018, and was succeeded by the finance director Nick Read.

[14] In April 2020, Colao was appointed by the Italian government led by Giuseppe Conte as the leader of a special task force to handle the 'Phase 2' of the emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic.

[16] In February 2021, he was appointed Minister of Technological Innovation and Digital Transition in Mario Draghi's government.