CenturyLink CEO Moves Up Retirement Date, Former Level 3 CEO to Take Reins

**Editor’s Note: Click here to see which channel people were on the move in February.**

Glen F. Post III, CenturyLink‘s CEO for more than 26 years, plans to retire from the company in May.

Post originally planned to retire on Jan. 1, 2019. His retirement will be effective on the day of CenturyLink’s 2018 annual shareholder meeting.

CenturyLink’s Glen Post

Jeff Storey, CenturyLink’s president and COO, and previously Level 3 Communications’ president and CEO, will take over as CEO and president at the time of Post’s retirement.

CenturyLink completed its $34 billion acquisition of Level 3 in November.

“While my original plan was to stay in my role through the end of 2018, Jeff has more than demonstrated his ability to assume this leadership role and I believe we should make this change sooner than originally planned,” Post said. “Also, while I will continue to serve the company as a board member, I will not assume the role of chairman of the board in order to ensure there is clarity that Jeff will be CenturyLink’s new leader.”

The company also announced that Harvey Perry will remain in his role as chairman of the board of directors and Bruce Hanks has been appointed as lead independent director.

CenturyLink’s Jeff Storey

“Glen has led CenturyLink’s impressive rise to be one of the world’s premier communications companies,” Perry said. “Under his leadership, CenturyLink’s annual revenues have grown from $281 million in 1991 to approximately $24 billion, on a pro forma basis, in 2017 and total assets have increased from nearly $765 million in 1991 to over $75 billion at year end 2017. It’s a remarkable track record.”

Storey has “worked tirelessly” to make the CenturyLink-Level 3 integration a success, he said.

“Glen has done a tremendous job leading CenturyLink,” Storey said. “His vision has equipped CenturyLink with the capabilities to meet the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, provide the digitalization of life for our consumer customers and address the evolving complexity for our enterprise customers,” Storey said. “We have great opportunities ahead and I am excited to be part of the team that is carrying this legacy forward.”

CenturyLink reported higher profit and revenue for 2017’s fourth quarter, when it completed the Level 3 acquisition, compared to the same quarter in 2016.

The company’s stock reacted favorably to the news, up 1.1 percent on the day as of 12:46 p.m. ET.