Telecommunications company Lumen Technologies has appointed experienced cybersecurity executive Natnael Habtesion as vice president and deputy chief security officer.
In his new VP role, Habtesion will be responsible for administering Lumen’s industrial security, security compliance and audit and security risk assurance efforts, training his attention primarily on public sector and enterprise clientele, the Monroe, Louisiana-headquartered company said Wednesday.
The executive will leverage his almost one decade of service at the Federal Bureau of Investigations to preside over Lumen’s relationships with federal government customers, with an eye toward building and maintaining contract compliance. He is expected to help customers determine how to safeguard their architectures through the usage of Lumen products, based on both the company’s internal and external practices.
At Lumen, Habtesion will also generally liaise with the company’s various public sector clients and strengthen bonds.
During his time at the FBI, Habtesion moved up the ranks from a senior advisor overseeing intelligence and operational strategy to an assistant section chief in charge of strategy and large-scale endeavors.
For the last nearly eight years, Habtesion has worked at Discover Financial Services as senior director of cybersecurity. In this position, he spearheaded information security risk management and third-party information security risk management, as well as the business continuity initiative and the incident and crisis management operation.
Habtesion’s skill set includes change management, strategic planning and program management.
His appointment follows a number of changes to the Lumen leadership team this year. In April, Vinod Brahmapuram was named head of security business development for state and local government and education markets. In March, Chris Stansbury was instated as chief financial officer and in February, Quincy Allen, formerly of IBM, was added to the Lumen board of directors.
