Former Agent To Head Sales at Integra

By Khali Henderson

Longtime carrier executive Ken Smith is leaving the telecom agency he started last year to fill a newly created post as executive vice president of sales at Integra Telecom Inc.

Smith, a 30-year veteran of the communications industry, is formerly principal at Serviam LLC, a telecom agency based in the greater Denver area that Smith formed with two alumnae from Qwest Communications in October 2011. Smith’s partners, Mike Gieger and Michael Lipic, will continue to run the agency, which has a proprietary telecom and network expense management process.

Smith, a self-described “big fan of the indirect channel,”  will head of direct and indirect sales for Integra. Channel chief Ken Worcester, vice president of indirect channels, will report to Smith

The bulk of Smith’s resume includes stints with well known telephone companies, most recently CenturyLink where he was vice president of West Region sales, a role he served also at Qwest, which was acquired by CenturyLink in spring 2011. At Qwest, he was responsible for $1 billion in revenue and sales for Qwest’s Business Markets Group consisting of more than 500 employees covering the Western U.S. This included outside and inside sales, pre-sales engineering, post-sales support and operations.

His career also includes sales and management positions at ICG Communications Inc., Broadwing Communications LLC, MCI Worldcom and AT&T.

Smith’s appointment is the most recent executive management change at Integra Telecom. The company recently named Jesse Selnick at CFO; Karen Clauson as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary; and Kevin O’Hara as CEO.

Integra Telecom offers enterprise-grade networking, communications and cloud solutions to business and carrier customers in 35 markets across 11 Western states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington. The company owns and operates a fiber-optic network consisting of a 5,000-mile high-speed long-haul fiber network and a 3,000-mile metropolitan access network including more than 1,900 fiber-fed buildings.