Will the announcement that Neel Dev will be serving as interim CFO while CenturyLink initiates a search process for Sunit's replacement (that will include both internal and external candidates) be enough to reassure investors and analysts that it will be business as usual following the departure of Sunit in 3 days? Or will the suddenness of his resignation still cause concerns?
"Neel Dev, CenturyLink's group vice president of finance, has been named interim CFO effective upon Patel's departure. Dev served as the integration planning lead for Level 3 in the recent CenturyLink acquisition and currently has responsibility for business unit finance support, supply chain and procurement, capital governance management, budgeting and financial performance analysis and management. He has been part of Patel's leadership team for 14 years and has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, in both financial and operational roles.
"Sunit has made significant contributions to CenturyLink and Level 3 as CFO, and he has been a valuable partner to both companies and to me," said Jeff Storey, president and chief executive officer of CenturyLink. "Additionally, Sunit did a great job in building bench strength and an excellent leadership team across the finance organization. As Sunit focused on our external stakeholders, Neel has been our de facto operational CFO and part of my management team for the past ten years. I am highly confident he will continue our drumbeat of financial discipline across CenturyLink with a focus on synergy attainment, operating efficiency and profitable growth."