Storey has announced he will step down as president in November after a 40-year career in the sector including having served in senior roles with Lumen and its subsidiary Level 3 since 2008.
“It has been a privilege to serve as Lumen’s CEO,” said Storey, who will continue in a transitional role until the end of the year.
“Throughout my time with the company, I have been incredibly impressed by our team’s commitment to our core purpose of furthering human progress through technology. I am very excited to welcome Kate to Lumen. I believe her experience, leadership and enthusiasm are exactly what we need as we drive the company forward,” he added.
His successor Johnson also brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously held key leadership roles across a variety of Fortune 100 companies including Oracle, General Electric and Microsoft. Most recently, Johnson led Microsoft US, the company’s largest business with a remit for all of the company’s sales, services, marketing and operations.
Johnson said: “I am proud to take on the CEO role and eager to advance the strategy Jeff and the team have created. Lumen has made significant progress expanding its fibre footprint and enhancing its portfolio of digital capabilities. I’m looking forward to leading this great company through its next chapter and helping customers leverage the Lumen platform to power amazing digital world experiences.”
Lumen recently announced its investment in a sixth subsea cable system. It is set to develop a fibre pair on Grace Hopper, a subsea cable system created by Google, between New York and Bude in Cornwall. The wavelength capability Lumen will offer on the Grace Hopper subsea cable will increase capacity of data by close to 200Tbps between the two nations.
The company integrates network assets, cloud connectivity, security solutions and voice and collaboration tools into a single telecom platform.
