Digex, Inc. has appointed George Kerns, former senior vice president of operations at the Laurel, Md.-based commercial Web hosting firm, as its president and CEO. Since early 2001, Kerns has held primary responsibility for running Digex's operations. He succeeds Mark Shull.

Prior to joining Digex, Kerns was COO for HarvardNet. Previously, he served as senior vice president and general manager of customer service delivery for BBN Planet/GTE Internetworking, where he established operational procedures and data systems for managing large Web hosting, virtual private network, firewall and data communications environments.

Kerns also served as vice president of infrastructure and engineering with EDS Personal Communications and chief information officer for Contel Cellular/GTE Mobile Communications.