His shock departure follows weeks of high-level departures at the firm and adds fuel to rumours of a management rift in the company.
Despite this being the latest in a lengthening list of departures a Vodafone spokeswoman continued to deny reports of unrest at the company. "I can confirm that Chris Tombs will be leaving the company but it is to take up a new role elsewhere" she said.
Andy Smith CEO of Anglia Telecom and a former colleague of Tombs at Vodafone said: "Chris will be a massive loss to the business. Someone needs to look at why so many people are leaving."
Vodafone regional sales manager Chris Brenchley is also rumoured to have left the company.
Tombs and Brenchley are the latest in a long line of Vodafone figures rumoured to be leaving as the result of management differences with director of enterprise business unit Kyle Whitehill. Recent departures include Chris Huggett and Richard Hurring who both left the company in the past couple of months.
Other high-level departures over the past year include marketing manager Peter Bamford finance director Ken Hydon and senior manager for business partnerships Jason Rigby.
Next month Sir Julian Horn-Smith and Lord MacLaurin will also retire from the board. Their departure will mark the last of Sir Christopher Gents so-called "Newbury boys". Gent who oversaw the firms rapid expansion in the 1980s also symbolically severed ties with Vodafone in March by stepping down as president for life after he reportedly disagreed with CEO Arun Sarins management policy.
"Vodafone UK has lost a huge amount of talent over the past three years people who had the vision and passion to put Vodafone where it is today" said Smith.
Sarin now faces a battle to regain control as Vodafone announced record losses over £15 billion last week. This follows a rocky few months for the company that included the sale of Vodafone Japan in March.

3 has in-store concessions in 136 Superdrug stores at present. The new sales points will begin rolling out in May and June. They will be staffed by Superdrug sales assistants rather than trained 3 employees.
A 3 spokesman said: "This follows a successful trial at Superdrug´s store in Basingtoke. The footfall is predominantly female so this enables us to cater to a market that is hard to reach through other channels."
3 plans to increase the number of its own-branded ThreeStores from 17 to 60 by the end of the year.

Lovegrove has helped design a range of consumer products for companies like Sony Apple and Louis Vuitton.
Benefon CEO Jonathan Nate said: "Critical to the success of Benefon´s push into the personal navigation market and the building of our global TWIG brand will be consumer-led product design and innovation."
The partnership will involve the design of three phones over two years.
Lovegrove commented: "Our role will be to drive design in a number of key product segments creating a signature for Benefon. The common thread is the use of high quality materials and strong form factors."
Benefon chairman Brian Katzen added: "It is an absolute coup for Benefon to have a designer of the calibre of Ross Lovegrove working on the design of our new devices. He has enjoyed enormous global success in a range of fields."

According to the insurer´s data Lancaster is the hotspot for mobile phone theft with the Wirral Chester and Coventry close behind. The safest places for mobile phone owners are Ipswich High Wycombe and Oxford.
"Mobile phones are getting lighter and more compact which makes them easier for opportunistic thieves to swipe" noted Halifax Home Insurance senior underwriter Vicky Emmott.
l According to the most recent British Crime Survey figures on mobile phone theft women are more likely than men to have their mobiles stolen.

The enterprise is being run in association with Nokia.
Fans who use the service will be sent tickets direct to their mobile and the phone will then act as a ticket which will be scanned at entry to the gig.
"This is the first time a gig will be sold purely by mobile" claimed Nokia marketing manager Richard Sandford.
"The idea behind this service is that it is a convenient way for our customers to purchase tickets."
The gig will take place on June 7 at the London Hammersmith Apollo a venue the band last played in October 1987.
Sandford added: "Eventually we want the technology to progress so users register at ticketrush with their credit card details and music genre preferences. Then we will text them when a gig is coming up and they can just reply to say they want to attend and receive tickets.
"What´s great about ticketrush is that our customers get tickets to these gigs before anyone else so they don´t miss out."

The tournament at Roland-Garros from May 28 to June 11 is regarded as the world´s greatest clay-court tennis tournament and is watched by millions of viewers worldwide.
"We want to support a sport that lets us meet our users. This tournament is an opportunity to demonstrate our skill in combining technology ease-of-use and leisure" said Sagem CEO Thierry Buffenoir.

The retail chain is supporting the seventh series of the show with idents produced by Clemmow Hornby Inge based on the company´s mascot Mowbli.
The theme of the idents centres on the concept of star treatment. 40 idents will be aired over the 13 weeks of the series.
Carphone Warehouse marketing director Tristia Clarke said: "we are confident that this year´s series will be a huge success. We´re continuing a theme which will mirror o number of in-store initiatives."
This is the first time the Carphone brand has been associated with the main series of the show. The retailer sponsored Celebrity Big Brother at Christmas. It sponsored the last two series under the Talk Talk.

According to a creditors´ letter sent out on April 13 £1.4 million has been released to the company by Customs which has withheld £604000 for VAT charges. An outstanding legal case may reduce the VAT realisations by £464000. The company may be able to carry back £770000 against corporation tax.
Money collected from Daleri customers amounted £520000. However £312000 of this went to Ernst & Young as commission.
The liquidation has now been handed over to Kroll. Liquidator Andrew Pepper said payment would go first to office-holders´ fees and expenses then to preferential creditors such as employees.

The balance will then be divided equally between remaining creditors.
Unique went into administration in March 2005 after it is believed to have failed to secure enough credit to operate. The holding company Daleri sold Unique´s assets including the trading name to Land Investments at that time which resumed trading as Unique in the summer of last year. Unique continues to trade as a going concern under the new holding company.

Hugh Symons business manager Bob Sweetlove said: "LG handsets will be big over the next couple of months following the launch of the Chocolate phone."
Another contender keen to knock Nokia off the top spot is the Samsung D800. "If it does anywhere near as well as the D500 or D600 then it will be big." said Fone Logistics head of marketing Julian Parven.
T-Mobile´s Flext 35 is top consumer tariff but Avenir marketing manager Andy Chilton added: "The Business1 plan is also doing well."

Both HM Revenue & Customs and mobile phone traders claimed a victory following the European Court of Justice ruling on joint and several liability last week.
The court upheld the principle of joint and several liability but added a series of caveats to the legislation. Dass Solicitors which represents the claimants said this represented a victory of sorts for traders.
The court ruled that presumption of fraud was not valid on the grounds that a trader sells goods on for less than they had purchased them for. "That presumption is rebuttable on the proof that the low price payable for the goods was attributable to circumstances unconnected with failure to pay VAT" said the court.
It added that if a trader takes every reasonable precaution against fraud then he cannot be jointly and severally liable. The court ruled: "Traders who take every precaution must be able to rely on the legality of those transactions without the risk of being made jointly and severally liable to pay the VAT due from another taxable person."
The court also threw out the securities provision that enabled Customs to hold security from traders for VAT elsewhere in the supply chain.
Dass Solicitors partner Alias Dass said: "It has gone better than expected. The claimants were justified in taking the case to the court."
A Customs spokesman said: "The Government welcomes the ECJ´s firm and final confirmation that member states may legally prevent abuse of the VAT system and protect revenues by applying joint and several liability.
The claimants´ solicitors fees for the case amount to more than £200000.