CenturyLink Inc. has named Rick Buyens as regional sales vice president for CenturyLink’s Midwest region. He will be overseeing a team that serves business and government customers throughout the Midwestern United States.

Buyens, most recently a sales executive at Cbeyond, a cloud and communications services provider, is one of five regional sales vice presidents named in CenturyLink’s business solutions organization who will manage business and government sales both in and outside of the company’s local service area.

“I am pleased to join CenturyLink as one of the company’s new regional sales leaders,” said Buyens. “So many businesses and government entities today are faced with network and IT challenges, and I look forward to helping them find effective solutions with CenturyLink’s industry-leading cloud, managed IT and data networking services.”

Buyens has more than 30 years of sales and telecommunications industry experience. Prior to his executive sales position at Cbeyond, he held leadership positions at First Communications, McLeodUSA, AT&T and other telecommunications companies.

Buyens earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master of business administration in finance from Northern Illinois University. More information about CenturyLink products and solutions for businesses can be found at www.centurylink.com/business.