Karen A Puckett

With 25 years of telecommunications experience, Karen Puckett is an industry veteran. As Chief Operating Officer of CenturyTel since 2000, Puckett directs all of the company's operations, including sales, marketing, field operations, engineering, call centers and other support functions. Upon arrival at CenturyTel, Puckett joined in the integration of nearly 500,000 access lines acquired from GTE in Arkansas, Missouri and Wisconsin. She also led the 2001 company-wide realignment to a General Manager structure, thus pushing decision making closer to the customer and making CenturyTel more responsive to the marketplace. Puckett was instrumental in the effective divestiture of CenturyTel's wireless business, enabling the company's execution of a pure play rural wireline strategy. In addition, she led the effort to integrate CenturyTel's largest single access line acquisition in its history, growing the company by nearly 700,000 access lines.