It reads like a scene from a Hollywood B movie. The genial but ambitious computer company boss leans back from the lunch table, turns to his colleague and confides: "I will tell you the future of communications, Tony. It's called cellular radio."

Mr Tony Lewis, executive director of the British computing industry trade association, swears the story is true. He also acknowledges that neither he nor anybody else in the computing industry in the early 1980s had the faintest idea what Mr Chris Gent, who made the forecast, was talking about.

At the time the youthful Mr Gent was president-elect of the British computing trade association. Today he is chief executive of Vodafone, Britain's largest and most successful mobile phone operator. He is also poised to realise the forecast he made 15 years ago.

Last week, Vodafone made a bid for AirTouch, a US-based cellular operator. If the acquisition is successful, Mr Gent would head the world's largest cellular operator. The merged group would have a market capitalisation of about $110 billion (#95 billion) and possess the geographic scale to challenge fixed-line operators such as AT&T, British Telecom and Deutsche Telecom. "This is his dream. It is something he has had on his mind for a long time," says a friend.

It is not the first time a union between Vodafone and AirTouch has been mooted - 18 months ago merger talks collapsed because the two sides could not agree on a price. But when AirTouch said two weeks ago that it was considering a deal with Bell Atlantic, a US regional phone company, the Vodafone board responded in style.

Vodafone offered $55 billion in stock and cash for the US company, exceeding the $45 billion Bell Atlantic is believed to have offered and more than what many analysts believe to be fair value for AirTouch. The aim was twofold: to pre-empt Bell Atlantic and other suitors; and to exploit a market Mr Gent believes is woefully untapped.

This belief in a "wireless future" lies at the heart of his thinking. He forecasts that every second person in the developed world will have a mobile phone within five years. The mobile phone will become the key to electronic banking, cashless shopping, the electronic newspaper, even the means to open your garage doors remotely.

It is a vision that was passionately shared by Sir Gerald Whent, Vodafone's founder and first chief executive. The common purpose has led to one of the most effective partnerships in the telecoms industry.

"Whent was the entrepreneur," said a colleague. "He saw Vodafone as a huge piece of granite that he left Chris to sculpt." Mr Gent, unassuming and much-liked by colleagues and rivals, remains comparatively unknown in the wider business community, partly because he seemed content to work in Sir Gerald's shadow until he finally succeeded him as chief executive in 1997.

If Mr Gent is primus inter pares (first among equals), he has lost no time in stamping his personality on the company. He began his career as a management trainee with National Westminster Bank before moving into the computing services business, becoming director of network services for ICL and managing director of Baric, a computer bureau owned by Barclays Bank and ICL.

His manner is unassuming but never diffident, in contrast to the taste for loud braces and coloured shirts that he has retained throughout his rise. A former chairman of the Young Conservatives, he was a member of the Conservative Party's national executive but has now apparently abandoned parliamentary ambitions.

When Bell Atlantic made its bid for AirTouch, Mr Gent and Mr Julian Horn-Smith, head of Vodafone International, were both on holiday in Australia watching England's cricketers, who are sponsored by Vodafone. In a rare burst of immodesty, Mr Gent claims credit for England's improved performance in the final two matches, though they still lost the overall series.

Where he deserves credit, however, is for Vodafone's remarkble resurgence over the past two years. In the 1980s the company was the young turk of the industry, wrong-footing its chief competitor, the BT subsidiary Cellnet, on every count as it snapped up the lion's share of business customers.

But by the 1990s, Vodafone had become part of the establishment. It was the market leader but was losing the initiative, especially among new, home subscribers, to brash newcomers such as One-2One and Orange.

Mr Gent restructured the group's distribution channels, established the new red Vodafone logo, cut prices, spent heavily on advertising and embraced new trends such as "prepaid" packages which involve neither service contracts nor monthly line charges.

The reward has been substantial. Vodafone has reinforced its leadership with a record 993,000 net new subscribers in the final quarter of last year, almost double Mr Gent's prediction. Vodafone now has 9.1 million subscribers worldwide. Since Mr Gent became chief executive, Vodafone's share price has tripled to more than £10 sterling (#14.20).

The battle for AirTouch will test Vodafone's nerve. But on past evidence, only a brave individual would bet against Mr Gent and his team winning the day.