Windstream's Chief Technology Officer Randy Nicklas has left the telco, and his duties will be assumed by three other company executives.
David Avery, a Windstream spokesman, confirmed to FierceTelecom that Nicklas left the telco in early June. Avery did not elaborate to Light Reading, which reported on Nicklas' departure on late Wednesday, on why he left the company or if he took up a position at another company.
Nicklas came to Windstream in 2013 from XO Communications where he served in a similar CTO role. He played a large role in developing Windstream's nationwide fiber network.
Jeff Small, a 19-year telecom industry veteran, has been named head of engineering. In his new position, Small will oversee network engineering, architecture and capital management. Small, whose background is in accounting, rejoins Windstream from Communications Sales & Leasing (CS&L), the real estate investment trust created in 2015, into which Windstream spun off its wireline network assets.
The telco also promoted two other executives to new roles: Mike Hoyt will become senior VP of IP engineering and Ron Bayer was chosen to be as senior VP of transport engineering.
Hoyt, who joined Windstream from Level 3 following its acquisition of Global Crossing, will be responsible for Windstream's MPLS IP network.
Bayer will be responsible for Windstream's long-haul, regional and metro network and its power and colocation systems as well as future fiber deployments. He joined the company in 2014 from CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), where he served as the telco's director of transport planning and engineering. Previously he also worked at OnFiber Communications and MCI/Worldcom, now Verizon Business (NYSE: VZ).
For more:
- Light Reading has this article
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