F5 Networks continues to build its leadership team, this time with a steal from CenturyLink. James Feger, who led CenturyLink’s network virtualization development, left the company after 14 years to manage F5’s service providers unit.

Feger held a number of roles at CenturyLink.  He joined the company in 2006 as a director of IP and Ethernet technologies, according to his LinkedIn profile. He served as the interim chief technology officer briefly in 2014 prior to Amir Hussain taking over the role. Most recently he headed up CenturyLink's  NFV and SDN efforts, including its construction of its programmable services backbone.

CenturyLink confirmed that Feger will be replaced by Anil Simlot, its vice president of virtual services development and support. It did not offer any further comment on Feger’s departure or the company's network virtualization team.

As the general manager of F5's service providers unit, Feger will oversee service provider strategy worldwide and handle product development, product management, and marketing, F5 said in an email.

This includes shifting F5’s service provider strategy to prepare for 5G, IoT, and other burgeoning infrastructure services. The F5 spokesperson noted that the company expects demand for F5 products will accelerate as these new technologies take hold in the market.

This is just the most recent executive change for F5. In January, F5 appointed four new executives to its leadership team and all of them report to President and CEO François Locoh-Donou.

Kara Sprague joined as the SVP and GM of application delivery controller; Ram Krishnan became the SVP and GM of security; Tom Fountain, formerly of McAfee, was named EVP and chief strategy officer; and ex-Microsoft GM Ana White joined F5 as its EVP and chief human resources officer.

These hires, including Feger, all represent the company’s plan to expand its products, particularly in private and public cloud, software, hardware, and emerging technologies like 5G and IoT.

Just last week, F5 appointed Sprint CEO Michel Combes to its board of directors. It also named Mary Gardner as chief information security officer, as a replacement for Mike Convertino. In the statement made to SDxCentral, F5 said that the “CISO announcement is unrelated” to the leadership shifts, but that Convertino merely moved into a different role to lead security product strategy.