The newly launched Centre of Excellence will work with Irish companies to co-develop new mobile services for use by the Vodafone group.

It is its third such investment in Ireland during Elder's tenure, following an 8m data centre located in Dublin last year and the establishment of Vodafone's international contact centre soon after.

"It kind of all happened in the last year so I'm feeling pretty good about it, " Elder says with mock pride, before pointing out that both of last year's projects were in the works before her arrival last January.

The Vodafone Ireland chief executive is originally from Nebraska, but spent most of her formative years in neighbouring Colorado. The Rocky Mountain state is famed for its spectacular landscape and a health-conscious populace with an almost preternatural love of outdoor pursuits. Elder, who lists travelling and crosscountry skiing among her pastimes, certainly fits that mould.

A busy CV testifies to stints at AT&T Broadband, mobile company Airtouch Cellular and cable firm Media One.

Before her arrival in Ireland, Elder and her family had moved through San Francisco, LA, Miami and several points in between.

Elder says it wasn't such a big deal to move again, even if the distance was greater. "We also had a positive feeling about coming to Ireland. It's an easy place for Americans to transition to. We've moved around quite a lot. In some ways it's been a bit of an easier move than some of the places we've been in the US."

Following two years in the non-profit sector with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Vodafone job represents a welcome return to technology and telecoms. "There's no question that I am in this business for a reason, " she says.

As befits an executive in a mobile network operator, Elder confesses to owning an array of gadgets and mobile devices. Diplomatically, she singles out an iPod, a Mothers' Day present from her two sons, among the favourites.

The younger Elders thoughtfully filled the iPod with music they thought their mother would love or "should know".

The Vodafone boss' current playlist is an eclectic mix of everything from "traditional Irish music" to Franz Ferdinand and Gorillaz.

Elder also takes a professional interest in the technology that has brought such contemporary artists to her iPod. Mobile penetration in Ireland, like many other markets, has reached 100%. The low-hanging fruit is gone and Vodafone is hoping to earn its fair share from distributing music, videos and other content over its network.

Elder is excited that the world's largest mobile company has given the go-ahead for the R&D investment in Ireland, with a little help from the IDA, which she says could be vital in Irish mobile technology firms developing content and services for a potential Vodafone customer base of 176 million people.

She's not surprised, though, to be interrupted with a question about the company's Irish mobile charges. "I'm thrilled you brought that up, " she says, preparing to defend the company's high margins from its Irish customer base.

It's an issue that's not going away, especially when Vodafone has just published annual results that show Ireland is, once again, its most profitable market and the group's biggest per capita money-spinner.

"I feel confident that the prices we're charging our customers are fair for what we're providing, " Elder says, apologising "if that sounds like corporate mumbo-jumbo".

Published results for the Vodafone group break out some usage statistics that make depressing reading for Irish mobile users. Some have started to ask why, for instance, Vodafone's Australian customers have dramatically lower bills despite spending almost exactly the same time on the phone as Irish users.

Elder offers a nuanced explanation. Simply dividing minutes of use into average revenue figures does not paint a true picture, she claims. She takes issue with the resulting sum that suggests Irish users pay 25c per minute for calls while Australians pay just 14c.

"You're not looking at things like how much do they text and how much is their data revenue, " she says. Vodafone IIreland generates over 20% of its revenue from data, a combination of text messaging, 3G data services and video and music downloads.

Vodafone Australia has much lower data revenues and proportion of business customers (who make extensive use of high-spec data services), which explains why its average revenue per user is lower than Ireland's, Elder says.

She also makes the point that Vodafone Australia is a third-placed player and does not compare directly with Vodafone Ireland, which is the "market leader" and has the "dominant coverage position".

Vodafone invests 3m to 4m each week in its Irish network, Elder says, claiming, not surprisingly, that is the best in the country, with the widest coverage.

The obvious implication is that, if Vodafone were chasing in Ireland rather than leading, Irish customers would have lower bills, but Elder says they are getting value for money. "We've been bringing down prices year-on-year for the last four or five years."

The competitive landscape has changed with the recent arrival of 3 Ireland, the resurgence of Meteor and the impending arrival of Smart Mobile. "There are five operators for four million people, Elder says. "That is some of the most dense competition that there is anywhere."

Ultimately, she says, there is little evidence that Irish mobile users are unhappy with their mobile bills despite the negative publicity and comment that attends each set of results from Vodafone and O2 in Ireland. "Back in November we mentioned that we had 94,000 3G customers.

That number has now leapt up to 172,000. . . 24% of the homes here in Ireland have no fixed line phone. That says to me that people are pretty happy with their mobile services."

In stark contrast to Elders' over-running cup in Ireland, group chief executive Arun Sarin is facing heavy criticism from shareholders and fund managers. One of the largest shareholders, Standard Life, has publicly questioned his stewardship of the company, as weak results in several markets, notably Japan, have dragged on its share price.

With Sarin under pressure to show shareholders the money, the famously acquisitive company may become a seller for the first time, with its minority stake in US company Verizon Mobile flagged as a likely disposal.

If Elder is in any way perturbed by Vodafone's travails outside Ireland she doesn't show it, the smile still in place as she predicts that the company will come through its recent difficulty. "We're a big stakes player and we're up for being in the limelight, " she says.

THE MAN AND HIS COMPANY

TERESA ELDER
Age: 44
Position: Chief executive, Vodafone Ireland
Background: Business administration degree from Creighton University, Nebraska, and Masters in management at Stanford.

Worked with AT&T Broadband and Media One before first foray into mobile telecoms with Airtouch Cellular, which merged with Vodafone in 1999. Applied for current position, when she learned that Paul Donovan was leaving for another post within the group, while working with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and doing some consulting work for telecoms companies.

Hobbies: Travel, skiing, music

VODAFONE IRELAND Financial Information: Turnover of 1.2bn and pretax profit of 339.5m in the year to March 2005. Revenue and profit declined slightly on 2004, when the company reported turnover of 1.4bn and profit of 341m, but the 2004 figures included the mobile "top-up" business which has since been relocated to Britain.