Vodafone Qatar's chief exective officer Grahame Maher has passed away, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.   

The Qatari affiliate of British mobile operator Vodafone will appoint chief financial officer John Tombleson as acting chief executive, the mobile operator said.

Maher, aged 51, died of a heart attack, a spokeswoman said. 

Vodafone won the bid for Qatar's second mobile telephone licence in 2007 to break the monopoly of Qatar Telecom.

Maher had arrived in Qatar in 2008 to set-up Vodafone Qatar. - Reuters