Randy Nicklas, former CTO and senior vice president for XO Communications (News - Alert), has been appointed as the new executive vice president of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer of advanced network communications provider Windstream (News - Alert) Corp.

Nicklas will be in charge of network planning and engineering, outside plant, records and capital management. Windstream provides cloud computing and managed services to businesses around the nation, as well as broadband, phone and digital television services to mostly rural consumers.

He will bring many years of experience to his new role. As an employee of IP communications provider XO Communications, Nicklas was responsible for the overall network technology vision for XO Communication's voice, data and transport networks, and helping out with design of its commercial and wholesale voice, data and IP-based services.

He has previously held positions in engineering and technical management at Intelsat, Cisco (News - Alert) and MCI. Nicklas has also worked on software development and systems engineering on numerous programs for places such as NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Computer Sciences (News - Alert) Corporation.

Brent Whittington, Windstream's chief operating officer, said Nicklas will be an asset to the company.

"Randy has a deep understanding of complex telecommunications networks, a wealth of experience leading engineering organizations, and a real passion for excellence," Whittington said in a statement. "He will help us take the critical next steps to strengthen our network so that it truly becomes the platform for our long-term success."

Windstream, which has more than 200 business sales offices across the country, was recently named a Fortune 500 company for the year 2013. The annual list ranks the top U.S. companies based on their gross revenue. This year, Windstream came in 414th place with its production of $6.2 billion in revenue.

 Additionally, the company has been named among the top five companies in the integrated telecommunications services industry with highest sales growth. It came in first place with a recorded sales growth of 27.6 percent, followed by HickoryTech with 17.7 percent, General Communications with 8.8 percent, Alaska Communications Systems (News - Alert) with 8.7 percent and IDT with 6.3 percent.