Lumen hires new public sector executive VP

Lumen Technologies hired a new executive vice president for enterprise sales and public sector, Jay Barrows, who is a three-decade veteran of the telecommunications and technology sectors.

Barrows will lead the teams that work with Lumen's national enterprise customers including government agencies at the federal, state and local levels. He will report directly to chief executive Kate Johnson, the former Microsoft U.S. president who became Lumen's CEO in November.

Zain Ahmed will continue in his role as senior vice president for public sector and report directly to Barrows, Lumen said Thursday.

Lumen is one of the federal government's primary providers of telecommunications and other network services, including through the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions vehicle.

Networks are at the core of Lumen's strategy, but not the only aspect of it given the company's larger push to be a leader in the so-called "Fourth Industrial Revolution" that describes how technologies converge.

Barrows' career prior to Lumen includes sales leadership roles at companies such as the former General Electric, Red Hat and EnterpriseDB.

“I’ll be working with the team on changes that will make it easier for our customers to do business with us and easier for us to do the work it takes to get there," Barrows said in a release.

Along with Barrows, Lumen also announced that Sham Chotai has joined the company as executive vice president for product and technology with responsibility for evolving IT architectures and solutions.

Chotai's three-decade career in the technology sector includes C-level roles at GE, Barrick Gold and the former Hewlett-Packard.

“Lumen is focused on becoming customer-obsessed, rapidly innovating valuable solutions, and aligning our business model to deliver amazing customer experiences,” Johnson said in a release. “Sham and Jay will each play a critical role in modernizing our business and improving our execution capability to support these goals.