Lumen Technologies (LUMN) Unveils Executive Leadership Change as David Ward Departs for Salesforce and Jim Fowler Steps In as Chief Technology & Product Officer

Published: December 5, 2025

Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) has announced a high‑profile technology leadership transition that links two major players in the AI and cloud ecosystem: Lumen and Salesforce.

In an SEC filing and accompanying press release today, the company revealed that Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Product Officer David Ward is resigning to become President and Chief Architect at Salesforce, while board member Jim (James) Fowler will step into Ward’s role as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology & Product Officer (CTPO). [1]

The move comes in the middle of Lumen’s aggressive transformation into what it brands “the trusted network for AI,” and just weeks after the company reported improving financial trends on the back of AI‑driven connectivity demand and multi‑year infrastructure deals. [2]

What Lumen Announced Today

According to Lumen’s Form 8‑K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the leadership reshuffle is structured as an orderly, staged transition rather than an abrupt exit. [3]

Key details include:

• David Ward’s resignation and new role
  • Ward has resigned from his positions at Lumen and its principal subsidiaries in order to join Salesforce, Inc. as President and Chief Architect.
  • He will step down as Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Product Officer on January 5, 2026, but will remain an employee through January 23, 2026 to support the handover. [4]
• Jim Fowler’s appointment
  • On December 3, 2025, Lumen’s Board of Directors appointed James (Jim) Fowler, then a board member, to succeed Ward as Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Product Officer, effective January 5, 2026. [5]
  • In connection with becoming an executive officer, Fowler resigned from the Board on December 5, 2025, and will serve as an advisor until his formal employment start date. [6]
• Reporting line and remit
  • Fowler will report directly to CEO Kate Johnson and take responsibility for global technology and product strategy, including the evolution of Lumen’s network, digital platforms and product portfolio. [7]
• Strategy continuity
  • Lumen states that it does not expect the leadership change to alter its existing technology roadmap or strategic growth priorities, which will be showcased in more detail at its Investor Day in New York on February 25, 2026. [8]

In short, this is a controlled transition from one high‑profile technology leader to another, with Lumen at pains to signal continuity in its long‑term plan.

Who Is David Ward — and Why His Exit Matters

David Ward is a well‑known figure in networking and telecom circles. At Lumen, he has been at the center of the company’s technology and product reset:

• Ward joined Lumen as Chief Technology Officer in February 2024 and was promoted to Chief Technology and Product Officer in August 2024, taking responsibility for the development, integration and deployment of the company’s global network and product innovation efforts. [9]
• As CTPO, he has been closely associated with Lumen’s push into next‑generation connectivity (including its private connectivity fabric for AI workloads) and with its broader repositioning from a legacy telco to a digital infrastructure provider. [10]

His decision to leave for Salesforce is significant on several fronts:

1. Validation of Lumen’s tech talent
   Being hired as President and Chief Architect at Salesforce—one of the flagship names in AI‑powered enterprise software—underscores Ward’s profile as a strategic technologist. It also indirectly validates the caliber of talent Lumen assembled to lead its transformation. [11]
2. Potential ecosystem links
   While neither company has announced any partnership tied to Ward’s move, his deep knowledge of Lumen’s network capabilities and AI‑focused connectivity fabric could create future opportunities for technical collaboration or joint solutions, even if only informally at first. (This is speculative; no such plans are disclosed in current filings.)
3. Continuity versus disruption
   Ward’s continued employment through late January suggests a structured transition designed to avoid disruption to product roadmaps and key customer programs.

For Lumen investors and enterprise customers, the key question isn’t just who is leaving, but how seamlessly the company can transfer execution to his successor.

Who Is Jim Fowler? Board Insider Turned Technology Chief

Jim Fowler is not arriving cold. He has been on Lumen’s Board of Directors since 2023 and has already played a role in shaping its transformation plan and technology roadmap. [12]

His background is squarely in large‑scale enterprise and industrial technology:

• Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company – Since 2018, Fowler has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, overseeing modernization of core technology capabilities, digital transformation of operations, and intelligent automation across the enterprise. [13]
• General Electric (GE) – Prior to Nationwide, Fowler spent nearly two decades at GE, including as Group Chief Information Officer, leading the conglomerate’s internal digital transformation efforts and holding CIO roles at several GE business units (GE Capital, GE Power and Water, GE Intelligent Platforms, GE Aviation). [14]
• Early career – He began his career at AT&T and later worked at Accenture, giving him a mix of carrier, consulting and large enterprise experience. [15]

In today’s press release, CEO Kate Johnson praised Ward’s “visionary leadership” and emphasized that Fowler is “uniquely suited” to lead the tech and product organization as Lumen pushes deeper into AI‑era networking—framing the change as a move from invention to large‑scale execution. [16]

Fowler, for his part, highlighted Lumen’s “unique opportunity to strengthen its position as the trusted network for AI” and his intention to work closely with engineers and product teams to accelerate innovation and execution. [17]

Given his prior role on Lumen’s board and as a customer of its services, Fowler arrives with:

• inside knowledge of Lumen’s network and product roadmap,
• experience orchestrating complex digital transformations, and
• a clear mandate to execute at scale, not to rewrite the strategy from scratch. [18]

Strategic Context: A Leadership Swap in the Middle of an AI‑Era Turnaround

The timing of the leadership change is critical. Lumen is deep into a multi‑year effort to pivot from legacy telecom to a digital networking platform built for the AI economy.

At its 2025 Industry Analyst Forum in September, Lumen’s leadership laid out a three‑pillar strategy to become “the trusted network for AI”: [19]

1. Building the backbone of the AI economy
   A physical network designed for scale, speed and security—connecting data centers, hyperscalers and enterprises across long‑haul and metro networks.
2. “Cloudifying and agentifying” telecom
   Turning connectivity into an intelligent, on‑demand, consumption‑based digital platform via offerings such as Lumen Connect (a self‑service portal), a universal Fabric Port, and new edge‑intelligent capabilities.
3. Creating a connected ecosystem
   Partnering with technology providers and hyperscalers to embed AI into networking and security, unlocking new use cases across industries.

Financially, the company is attempting to reset its balance sheet and free up capacity for growth:

• Lumen has agreed to sell its mass‑market consumer fiber‑to‑the‑home business (including most of Quantum Fiber) in 11 states to AT&T for $5.75 billion, a deal expected to close in the first half of 2026. [20]
• After closing, Lumen projects that it will have reduced gross debt by more than 35% to around $13.2 billion, cut gross leverage below 4x, and almost halve annual interest expense to about $700 million. [21]

In parallel, the company is building an AI‑centric services layer on top of this network:

• A multi‑year partnership with Palantir Technologies will see Lumen spend more than $200 million on Palantir’s AI software and integrate it with Lumen’s high‑performance connectivity fabric to help enterprises deploy AI at scale. [22]
• New security offerings such as Lumen Defender Advanced Managed Detection and Response for Microsoft Sentinel and Lumen Defender managed rules for AWS Network Firewall are designed to blend Lumen’s network intelligence with hyperscaler security tools. [23]

The Ward‑to‑Fowler transition, then, is happening at a moment when Lumen’s strategy is largely set, its product roadmap is being built out, and the task is increasingly about execution, scaling and monetizing that roadmap.

Recent Performance: AI Demand Starts to Show Up in the Numbers

Lumen’s latest results show early signs that its strategy is gaining traction, even as the company remains heavily leveraged and still loss‑making.

In its third quarter of 2025, Lumen: [24]

• Reported an adjusted loss of $0.20 per share, beating analyst expectations for a $0.27 loss,
• Slightly exceeded revenue forecasts with $3.09 billion vs. consensus of $3.04 billion, and
• Highlighted its private connectivity fabric (PCF) solution, which generated $1 billion of new deals in October alone, bringing total contract value to more than $10 billion across roughly 15–16 customers.

The company has also reaffirmed its 2025 outlook and continues to emphasize that AI‑related workloads are driving demand for high‑performance, secure connectivity, particularly from hyperscalers and large enterprises. [25]

Taken together with the AT&T fiber sale and Palantir partnership, this backdrop explains why analysts and investors have been increasingly focused on execution risk rather than on whether Lumen has a strategy at all.

Market Reaction and Analyst Sentiment on LUMN

Share price move

As of early afternoon trading on December 5, 2025, Lumen shares were trading around $8.78, down roughly 8% on the day.

The stock, however, remains significantly higher than at the start of 2025, after a strong rally fueled by AI‑related announcements, network modernization news and a series of analyst upgrades.

Street price targets and ratings

Recent research and data points include:

• RBC Capital Markets
  • Raised its price target on Lumen to $8.00 from $4.25, maintaining a Sector Perform rating.
  • The move reflects expectations that the consumer fiber sale to AT&T will strengthen the balance sheet and support the turnaround. [26]
• Raymond James
  • Increased its target to $10.00 from $5.00 with an Outperform rating, pointing to the pending AT&T asset sale as a key driver for potential share appreciation after Lumen’s third‑quarter results. [27]
• TipRanks / AI‑based analysis
  • TipRanks notes a recent analyst rating of “Hold” with a $9.50 price target and categorizes Lumen’s AI “Spark” rating as Neutral, citing ongoing revenue pressure and high leverage but improving technical trends and strategic progress. [28]
• Consensus forecasts
  • Aggregated data from TickerNerd indicates that 15 Wall Street analysts have a median 2026 price target of about $8 per share, with estimates ranging from $2 to $11. [29]
• Zacks and other sentiment indicators
  • Zacks recently flagged Lumen as a “Buy”‑rated stock, pointing to improving earnings prospects and discounted valuation despite industry headwinds. [30]

In qualitative commentary, coverage summarized by StockAnalysis and other aggregators suggests that:

• The Motley Fool views Lumen as being in a “significant turnaround,” with tangible progress but an urgent need to further reduce debt to fully stabilize its financial position. [31]
• A private‑equity‑style fund, Penn Capital Management, disclosed buying roughly 2.7 million Lumen shares (about $16.8 million) in the third quarter, interpreted by some as a vote of confidence in the company’s multi‑year recovery story. [32]

Broadly, the Street’s message has been: the turnaround is real but fragile, and execution on the AI‑network strategy plus balance‑sheet repair remains critical.

What the Leadership Change Signals for Lumen’s Roadmap

Lumen’s messaging around the Ward‑Fowler transition is designed to reassure investors and customers that the strategy is intact:

• The company explicitly states that it does not expect the leadership change to alter its technology roadmap or strategic priorities. [33]
• Fowler has already been involved in the transformation as both a board member and a customer, giving him a head start on understanding Lumen’s connectivity fabric, cloud integration plans and security portfolio. [34]
• By resigning from the board and becoming an executive officer, Fowler moves from oversight to direct accountability for execution, potentially accelerating decision‑making around product, platform and partnership moves.

From a governance perspective, having a board member step into a key operating role—while simultaneously resigning from that board seat—is standard practice and aligns with common concerns around independence and conflicts of interest. [35]

Strategically, this change can be read less as a pivot and more as a shift in emphasis:

• Ward played a visible role in redefining the vision and architecture of Lumen’s technology stack.
• Fowler’s background suggests a focus on large‑scale execution, operational modernization and enterprise‑level transformation—skills that line up with Lumen’s next phase as it tries to monetize its AI‑ready network and security platform.

Key Questions Going Forward

While Lumen has framed the leadership change as smooth and non‑disruptive, several open questions will likely shape how markets interpret the move over the coming quarters:

1. Will execution accelerate under Fowler?
   With multi‑billion‑dollar connectivity and AI infrastructure deals in hand and a clear roadmap laid out at the analyst forum, investors will look for signs that time‑to‑market for new services is shrinking and that revenue from AI‑linked platforms like PCF is scaling consistently. [36]
2. How will Lumen manage top‑talent churn?
   Losing a high‑profile technology leader to Salesforce inevitably raises questions about retention of other senior technologists. The company will need to demonstrate that its engineering and product benches remain deep—and that Fowler can attract additional talent.
3. Can the balance‑sheet reset stay on track?
   The AT&T fiber sale, planned debt reduction and interest savings are central to the turnaround story. Any delay or repricing of that transaction could affect both valuation and strategic flexibility. [37]
4. Will Ward’s move create new ecosystem opportunities—or competitive tension?
   Salesforce’s own AI and data ambitions could intersect with Lumen’s connectivity and security strengths in interesting ways. For now, there is no announced partnership tied to Ward’s transition, but the overlap in customer bases and AI infrastructure needs is hard to ignore.

Takeaways for Readers

• This is a planned succession, not a sudden shake‑up.
  Ward’s departure date, transitional support period and Fowler’s board‑to‑executive move all point to a carefully orchestrated handover.
• Lumen’s AI‑network strategy remains the centerpiece.
  The company continues to position itself as a digital infrastructure provider for AI workloads, supported by big‑ticket connectivity contracts, cloud security launches and the Palantir partnership.
• Investor sentiment is cautiously constructive.
  Price‑target upgrades from RBC and Raymond James, a more favorable view from Zacks, and buy‑side interest from institutional investors all underscore growing—though still tentative—confidence in Lumen’s multi‑year turnaround. [38]
• Execution risk is still front and center.
  High leverage, legacy revenue declines and the complexity of large‑scale network modernization leave little margin for error, making Fowler’s performance as CTPO one of the key storylines to watch in 2026.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and news‑reporting purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any security, or a solicitation of any kind. Investors should conduct their own research or consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.

References

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