Monroe, Louisiana-based CenturyLink, Inc., announced Tuesday that Duane Ring has been named president of the company's Midwest region, which will be headquartered in Minneapolis.

Ring, who is currently president of CenturyLink's Northeast region, will assume his new role once CenturyLink's merger with Qwest Communications International, Inc., is completed-which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2011.

As a regional president, one of six under the combined company, Ring will be responsible for revenue, customer retention, customer satisfaction, and service delivery in the Midwest.

The other five regional headquarters serving the combined company's 37-state service area will be located in Denver; Phoenix; Seattle; Wake Forest, North Carolina; and Orlando, Florida.

Since joining CenturyLink in 1984, Ring has held a variety of positions within the company, including systems development manager, division manager, division vice president, and region vice president.

John Stanoch, who served for 10 years as president of Qwest's Minnesota and North Dakota operations, announced last month that he plans to leave Qwest following the close of the merger.

Qwest and CenturyLink announced their merger agreement in April and shareholders of both companies approved the agreement in August. Once the merger is completed, Qwest will become a wholly owned subsidiary of CenturyLink.