CenturyLink revamps its public-sector leadership team, taps Young to lead group

CenturyLink is realigning its public-sector management ranks, naming eight executives that will oversee sales and management of federal defense and civilian customer accounts.

These eight leaders will report to David Young, regional vice president of strategic government for CenturyLink.

CenturyLink
David Young

Young will lead a multifunctional, customer-facing organization responsible for strategic government market strategy, sales, architecture and engineering, and program management.

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These functions will be led by the following team members:

  • Scott Barnett: vice president of Department of Defense sales.
  • Zain Ahmed: senior director of civilian sales.
  • Cynthia M. Shelton: ­senior director of special programs sales.
  • Gil Brown: director of defense industrial base & federal carriers.
  • Craig Cupach: director, research and education sales.
  • Lisa Bruch: senior director of government strategy.
  • Seana Gilliland: vice president of program management office.
  • John Shuttleworth: director of sales engineering.

The naming of this team comes not long after CenturyLink completed its acquisition of Level 3 Communications.

Interestingly, a number of these government leaders come directly from Level 3, illustrating the influence current president and COO Jeff Storey is already having on the new company. In 2019, Storey will take over the reins as CEO for the company after Glen Post retires next year.

This new government team is being put in place during a transitional time for CenturyLink’s public-sector customers. Government agencies are now in the process of naming their vendors to transition away from the General Service Administration’s Networx telecom program to the $50 billion Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract.

CenturyLink was named along with AT&T, Verizon, BT and MetTel as one of several providers to participate in the EIS program. Federal agencies currently spend approximately $2 billion per year on network infrastructure, according to the GSA. Due to its complexity, the Networx contract was extended until 2020.

By putting this team in place, the service provider will have the manpower to properly address its federal government customer’s transition to EIS and bid for task orders that will start being awarded later this year.