Data Center Investment Conference & Expo, East

Chris Sharp

CTO - Digital Realty

Chris Sharp has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, with an extensive background in developing technology strategies in global markets. He has a deep knowledge of the data center sector and is well positioned to expand technical innovation at Digital Realty. Most recently, he was responsible for cloud innovation at Equinix, where he led the development of innovative cloud services solutions and developed new capabilities enabling next-generation, high-performance exchange and interconnection solutions, facilitating broad commercial adoption of cloud computing on a global basis. Previously, Mr. Sharp held leadership positions at top network and colocation providers, including Qwest Communications, MCI/Verizon Business and Reliance Globalcom.

Douglas Fleit

Co-Founder & CEO - American Real Estate Partners

Doug Fleit is one of the co-founding partners of American Real Estate Partners and serves as the firm’s Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Fleit brings over 35 years of extensive experience in all aspects of commercial real estate, spanning more than 40 office markets throughout the country. Doug’s work has involved transactions of various types of structures in a multitude of areas including acquisition, leasing, finance, sales, disposition and development totaling more than 30 million square feet of transactions. Mr. Fleit is one of the pre-eminent real estate professionals and investors in American Real Estate Partners targeted markets. His acumen in has guided American Real Estate Partners and its affiliates in acquiring assets that fit the needs of the Company’s institutional investment partners and help to position each asset to maximize its value. Together with Brian Katz, American Real Estate Partners’s President and Chief Operating Officer, they have acquired approximately $1.8 billion of primarily office assets, spanning major office markets throughout the Mid-Atlantic, including Washington, D.C. and its Northern Virginia and Maryland suburbs, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Raleigh-Durham. For the 22 years prior to founding American Real Estate Partners, Doug was an Executive Vice President of Cushman & Wakefield’s Commercial Brokerage Group (C&W), co-founded their Washington DC operation in 1981, and was consistently recognized as one the top C&W brokers in the entire national organization. He served on C&W’s National Board of Advisors as well as serving on the firm’s National Arbitration Committee. Mr. Fleit’s vision and guidance helped grow the firm’s presence both regionally and nationally. For four years beginning in 1977, Doug worked for Savage/Fogarty, a Dutch institutional merchant developer, where he acquired, financed, leased and disposed of Savage/Fogarty’s new and renovated developments. Doug holds a B.S. in Psychology / Neurochemistry from the University of New Hampshire.

John Sheputis

President - Infomart Data Centers

​Chris Downie​​

CEO - Peak 10

Chris joined Peak 10 in September 2016. He is a proven chief executive with a long-standing reputation within the data center and related internet infrastructure sectors. He brings a demonstrated track record of execution and success to his role at Peak 10, where he is responsible for managing the strategic priorities that drive profitable growth for the business. Prior to Peak 10, Chris was the CEO of Telx Holdings, a leading retail data center solutions provider that built a national portfolio of 20 data center facilities in 13 major markets across the US, including New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Seattle, among others. He spent eight years helping Telx shape its industry-leading growth and execution strategy. He has over 25 years of combined executive leadership experience in finance and operations, working for Telx Holdings, Motient Corporation, BroadStreet Communications, Daniels & Associates and Bear Stearns. Chris is a graduate of Dartmouth College and earned an MBA in International Business from New York University.

Tony Lin

Director - ​GI Partners

Tony Lin is a Director of GI Partners and oversees direct investments in Real Estate. Prior to joining GI Partners, Mr. Lin was with MacFarlane Partners in San Francisco, where he managed a $3 billion portfolio of infill redevelopment assets in Washington D.C. Prior to that, he was at AMB Property Corporation in San Francisco, where he managed the company's Bay Area portfolio and started AMB's Value Added Conversion platform. Early in his career, Mr. Lin worked for Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York.

Ken Parent

CEO - CentralColo

Ken Parent brings 30 years of executive leadership experience to CentralColo including significant successes rapidly developing and scaling highly respected companies.​ Prior to CentralColo, Mr. Parent founded and served as CEO at ByteGrid, a national platform of Tier 3+ data centers in the U.S. During his tenure at ByteGrid, he led a management team acquiring 5 datacenters, with over 800,000 SF of mission critical space and 500 customers.​ Mr. Parent also led the successful and strategic acquisitions of Annapolis-based Sidus BioData, a leading provider of compliant hosting solutions for FDA and HIPAA-HITECH regulated companies, and NetRiver, a Seattle-based managed services provider, into the ByteGrid portfolio to diversify the business.​ ​Before Mr. Parent joined ByteGrid, he was the COO of The Mills Corporation, a NYSE listed publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust that acquired, developed, leased and operated large scale commercial real estate properties with total assets valued at nearly $8 billion.​ Prior to joining the Mills Corporation, Mr. Parent held various leadership positions with Price Waterhouse and Kenneth Leventhal.

Robert Rockwood

President - Sabey Data Centers

As President of Sabey Data Centers, Rob brings deep knowledge of the eastern region market and experience in solution based data center leasing. Prior to joining Sabey, Rob served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of CoreSite, joining shortly after its founding in 2001 by Carlyle Group’s US Realty Division; other positions held by Rob at CoreSite were Chief Operating Officer and Chief Investment Officer. Throughout, he was involved in every aspect of data center portfolio development and management. Rob began his career as a management associate with Columbia Energy Group upon his graduation from the Kennedy School and went on to become General Manager of Columbia Energy Group’s fiber optic start-up. In addition to his Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard, Rob holds a Master’s degree in Construction Management from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Rob served in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer officer and an Army Ranger.

Melvin Greer

Chief Data Scientist, Public Sector - Americas - Intel Corporation

Melvin Greer is the Chief Data Scientist, Public Sector of the Americas at Intel Corporation. Melvin uses his knowledge in graph analytics, machine learning and cognitive computing to accelerate transformation of data into a strategic asset for Federal Agencies and global enterprises. His systems and software engineering experience has resulted in patented inventions in Cloud Computing, Synthetic Biology and IoT Bio-sensors for edge analytics. He functions as a principal investigator in advanced research studies, including Nanotechnology, Additive Manufacturing and Gamification. He significantly advances the body of knowledge in basic research and critical, highly advanced engineering and scientific disciplines. Mr. Greer is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and U.S. National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine, GUIRR Mr. Greer has been awarded the BEYA Technologist of the Year Award, which recognizes his outstanding technical contribution and technical products that have a broad impact and high value to society as a whole. Melvin Greer has been appointed Fellow of the National Cybersecurity Institute where he assists government, industry, military, and academic sectors meet the challenges in cyber security policy, technology and education. In addition to his professional and investment roles, he is Founder and Managing Director of the Greer Institute for Leadership and Innovation, focused on research and deployment of a 21st Century Leadership Model. Mr. Greer is a member of the International Monetary Fund / World Bank, Bretton Woods Committee where he explores how deployment of enabling technologies relates to private sector development, commercial opportunities, global financial stability and social responsibility. Mr. Greer is a frequent speaker at conferences and universities and is an accomplished author; his fifth book “Practical Cloud Security a Cross Industry View” is his most recently published book.​ Mr. Greer serves on the Board of Trustees for Capitol Technology University in Laurel, Maryland and on the Board of Directors for the Northern Virginia Children’s Science Center. As a popular educator and board member at a number of Historical Black Colleges and Universities, Greer is leading science, technology, mathematical and engineering (STEM) research initiatives, directly trying to shape a more diverse generation of up-and-coming technical talent. Greer received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems and Technology and his Master of Science in Information Systems from American University, Wash. D.C. He also completed the Executive Leadership Program at the Cornell University, Johnson Graduate School and the Entrepreneurial Finance Post Graduate Program at MIT, Sloan School of Management.​

Brian Johnston

Chief Technology Officer - Data Centers - QTS

As Chief Technology Officer, Brian Johnston provides technology leadership for IT infrastructure, product development and data center design. Brian has a unique combination of design, technological expertise, and more than 17 years of experience in delivering IT solutions. Brian has worked in various engineering positions for several of the nation's top technology companies. Brian gained his experience working in several top U.S. technology companies, which gave him an intimate understanding of the importance of performance and capacity through analytics, monitoring and reporting. Prior to his role as Chief Technology Officer, Brian was QTS' Chief Operations Officer. Prior to joining QTS, Brian served as Vice President of Operation at First National Technology Solutions, a data center services company, from 2001 to 2006, and President of Capaciteam, a capacity planning and mathematical modeling service provider, from 1999 to 2001. Brian served honorably in the United States Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve from 1990 to 1995. Brian holds a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Bellevue University with an associates degree in Electronic Engineering with Honors. He is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Society for academic achievement. Brian and his family support a number of charities including Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Veterans with Disabilities, and the Aba House Foundation.

Jason Silva

President & CTO - ByteGrid

Jason Silva has over 17 years’ experience in Data Center Management and Information Technology. His experience includes the management and implementation of internet and intranet systems in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, government, and technology sectors. Jason joined ByteGrid in March of 2015 when his former company Sidus Data was acquired by ByteGrid. Jason was a Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Sidus. Jason main focus as Chief Technology Officer is building, supporting and advancing ByteGrid’s product portfolio as the most innovative information systems available to today’s enterprises. He has spoken extensively on the implementation of regulated cloud computing environments to national and international industry groups such as the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE) and Institute for Validation Technology. Mr. Silva has also participated and presented to the FDA’s cloud working group on the risk considerations and data integrity for regulated cloud deployments.

Derrick Millard

Director, Real Estate & Facilities Management - GEICO

Anthony Bolner

Managing Director & Partner - Stream Data Centers

Anthony Bolner is Managing Director and Partner of Stream Data Centers and oversees marketing and business development activities. Bolner has more than 24 years of commercial real estate experience, 14 of which have been spent focused on mission-critical projects. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

Jerry Martin

Co-Founder & Chief Construction & Engineering Officer - fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547)

Jerry Martin is the Chief Construction & Engineering Officer and a co-founder of 1547 and The Martin Group, a premier national datacenter construction firm. With over 25 years of development experience including six years of direct datacenter development expertise, Mr. Martin’s expertise in complex large-scale and fast-track projects has made him knowledgeable about the intricacies of core and shell construction. Mr. Martin has experience in both field supervision and project management of a variety of high-end construction projects nationwide with a track record of value engineering to maintain budget and schedule goals. Through these projects, Mr. Martin has developed relationships industry leading real estate and technology firms. Mr. Martin attended Stockton College and holds OSHA 30-hour, 7×24 Exchange and AFCOM member licenses and certifications.

Matt Palese

Senior Director - Equinix

​During his ten year tenure with Equinix, Matt Palese spent six years in Sales and currently serves as Senior Director of Asset/P&L Management for Equinix. Matt is charged with strategy development and execution for the assets located in the Chicago, Denver, and Dallas markets. To accomplish this Matt leverages a subject matter expert knowledge of these markets and the competitive landscape combined with an understanding of current clients, ecosystems, and their interconnection patterns. Together with Marketing, Operations, Design and Construction, Real Estate, and Sales, Mattfacilitates and drives achievement of Revenue and EBITDA goals for the region.

Scott Brown

President - Pixel Factory Data Center

Laurence Pelletier

CEO & Managing Partner - Experis Data Centers

Laurence Pelletier brings more than 30 years of experience in real estate, finance and data center operations to Experis Data Centers. As CEO, Mr. Pelletier provides strategic guidance, financial and operational oversight as well as investor relations. Mr. Pelletier’s experience includes 15 years as Managing Director/Partner with T-Rex Capital Group, where he was responsible for investment origination, financial engineering, and asset management of the firm’s real estate investments, including numerous data centers and technology assets. Prior to joining T-Rex Capital, Mr. Pelletier was founder and principal of Real Estate Solutions, Inc., a boutique consulting firm providing financial underwriting, due diligence, and asset management services to institutional and private investors for commercial property acquisition, disposition and structured financing activities. Mr. Pelletier has also served as Acquisition Manager for Leggat McCall Properties in Boston and with Kenneth Leventhal & Co. as an Audit and Consulting associate in its New York office. Mr. Pelletier holds an M.S. in Finance and B.S. in Accountancy.

Howard Horowitz

Managing Principal - Kestrel Venture Partners

Juan Font

VP & General Manager​​,​ Eastern Region - CoreSite​​

Jeff Ivey

General Manager, Data Centers - Corporate Office Properties Trust

Jeff Ivey is the General Manager with Corporate Office Properties Trust. In this role, he manages the operations, security, staffing, sales & marketing, sales engineering, telecommunications & connectivity and customer relations. Jeff has over 30 years of experience in the commercial and critical infrastructure industries. He has a strong background working with large corporations including the integration of multiple business units in fast paced and dynamic environments. He has direct experience with merger and acquisition activity resulting in both rapid growth as well as corporate downsizing. Jeff is an active data center and IT infrastructure professional. He is a member of 7 x 24 Exchange, AFCOM and NVTC Data Center and Cloud. Jeff’s varied background in managing operations, sales and strategic corporate planning provide the perfect foundation for being successful in the data center industry. In his spare time he coaches youth ice hockey for the Reston Raiders Hockey Club and he is also an avid motorcycle rider

Craig McKesson

Executive VP, Enterprise Services - T5 Data Centers

As Executive Vice President, Enterprise Services, Craig leads the strategy, development, marketing and sales of enterprise IT Colocation and Cloud Services and Solutions within the T5 Data Centers portfolio. Craig manages key partner relationships for the delivery of MANAGED SERVICES, HOSTING, PRIVATE and HYBRID CLOUD solutions and NETWORK management. Supports cross-functional sales and development activities related to wholesale data center leasing, critical facility operations and identification of new market opportunities. Prior to T5 Data Centers, Craig was an executive vice president in Jones Lang LaSalle’s Tenant Representation group headquartered in Chicago specializing in global corporate headquarters, back-office / customer service and data center site selection and advisory services. Prior to entering the world of Real Estate, Craig served as a Captain in the United States Air Force. Stationed at the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, Craig worked as a Project Engineer / Mission Manager on the Delta rocket program ensuring GPS satellites reached their intended orbit so that now they can help you find your way home. Craig holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Miami (FL) and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Finance, Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

Richard Zanatta

Former Director, Communications & Facilities - U.S. House of Representatives

Rich Zanatta is the former Director of Networking and Facilities at the United States House of Representatives. His in-depth knowledge in both technology and data center infrastructure help him drive and manage organization-wide transformations and ensure alignment with business strategies. Zanatta was responsible for ensuring the House has viable voice and data communications, sustainable data centers and supports various Business Continuity elements supporting the the U.S. House. Zanatta has a unique combination of military, private and public sector experience. Before joining the House in 2001, Zanatta worked for Lucent Technologies / International Network Services as a project manager and Managing Consultant and served in the United States Navy for 24 years. He served as a Presidential Communications Officer and Chief of Information Technology at the White House Communications Agency and Chief Integration Officer at U.S. Space Command/NORAD.

Phillip Sandino

VP, Data Center Operations - RagingWire Data Centers

Phill Lawson-Shanks

Chief Architect & ​VP, Innovation - EdgeConneX

Mr. Lawson-Shanks has been at the forefront of designing and deploying industry leading solutions in both the UK and the US for over 25 years. Prior to joining EdgeConneX, Phill was CTO of Virtacore responsible for datacenter build-out, network core architecture and systems to accommodate the migration and consolidation of thousands of clients and infrastructure. Phill’s team also designed and deployed the world’s largest VMware based Public Cloud. At Alcatel-Lucent Phill served as Chief Strategy Officer where he led their effective transition to the cloud, virtualizing many of their programs and creating meaningful time and cost savings. Phill joined SAVVIS as VP and GM of Hosting to re-establish the Managed Hosting business as well as introduce the first ‘virtual server’ product to the market. As Founder, VP and GM of Digital Media at MCI (now Verizon Digital Media Services), Phill created the division and received several related patents in the process. Phill holds 8 active Technology Patents secured worldwide including 4 in the U.S. and 4 in Europe.

Bruce Ogden

Regional Director, Hybrid IT Solutions - Level 3 Communications

David Fiedler

Datacenter Operations, Design & Build Manager - Dropbox

Dave joined Dropbox in mid-2014 to help plan, design and construct the organization's next iteration of physical infrastructure. Prior to Dropbox, Dave was fortunate enough to see the datacenter ecosystem from multiple vantage points, including infrastructure modularization as Director of Technology at Modular Power Solutions, datacenter planning and consulting as a Senior Consultant at Hewlett-Packard, and having started in datacenter design and construction at Page Southerland Page. He received his BSE from Duke University in Biomedical Engineering and is a licensed professional engineer.

C​hristopher Walsh

Director, Data Center & Network Services - INAP

Christopher Walsh is Data Center professional with 10+ years of experience in Real Estate, Tenant and Landlord Representation, Site Selection Advisory, Build-to-Suits, Acquisitions, Sale-Leasebacks, Investments and Connectivity. Licensed TREC Broker that’s represented and/or completed successful transactions with 4 different Fortune 10 companies, Many Fortune 100 and Global 500 Companies. Currently Director of Data Center and Network Services for INAP… Worked as a VP and/or Director with companies like Lincoln Property Company, Zayo, Windstream, and Cbeyond/Birch. Specialties include Wholesale and Retail Colocation, Public/Private/Hybrid Cloud (IaaS), Connectivity (Copper, Fiber, LAN / WAN), OpenStack, Cloud & Telecom Brokerage, Complex Managed Hosting, Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity, Virtualization, DRaaS, SaaS, and VoIP.

Craig Deering

Director, Design & Construction - CyrusOne

Erik Egger

Senior Project Manager, Data Center Operations - Iron Mountain Data Centers

Mr. Egger is a Vice President located in the Northeast region of Jones Lang LaSalle. He has been the lead project manager for projects throughout North America utilizing his skills as both a project manager and an engineer. Mr. Egger`s most current role is as the project team lead for multiple mission critical and infrastructure upgrade projects across the US, servicing: the National Basketball Association, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Iron Mountain.Previous Experience: Most recently, Mr. Egger completed a series of projects for Iron Mountain that included an upgrade to their geo-thermal plant that raised the cooling capacity from 3MW to 8MW, a 2MW expansion to their electrical infrastructure, a 10,000 s.f. expansion to the data hall area, and a 5,000sf disaster recovery area. While at Jones Lang LaSalle, Mr. Egger has done several projects at the Goldman Sachs, Carteret Data Center; a Tier III+ facility. The projects included a 120,000 sf / $100mil expansion, which comprised 20,000 s.f. of white floor space, an electrical infrastructure capacity increase from 8MW to 30MW, technology /office space to accommodate the expansion, and the necessary mechanical infrastructure to support the expanded facility. The project also included the construction of temporary facilities to accommodate the construction phase, permitting the facility to remain in full, 24/7 operation with zero (0) down time. Prior to the expansion at the facility noted above, he completed a 50,000 s.f. Infrastructure Upgrade Project, valued at $40 million, which included the doubling of the electric and mechanical infrastructure capacity. Mr. Egger has also been involved on other Mission Critical projects to provide construction & design oversight, peer reviews, failure assessments/mitigation action reviews, and due diligence reports for the National Basketball Association, New York Presbyterian, HSBC, Bloomberg Financial, SHI, Bank of America, VMWare, Kaiser Permanente, Moody’s Investors Services, Deutsche Bank, and financial institutions in both Canada and Mexico. Other projects included tenant fit-outs / facility upgrades for Hewitt Associates, Deutsche Bank, Dressbarn, Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance, Veeco Instruments, PetCo, and Mellon Financial Services totaling over 2,500,000s.f. Prior to joining Jones Lang LaSalle, Mr. Egger was a Division manager for a Canadian based construction firm with overall responsibility regarding the department’s success and growth in the Mission Critical market for new construction, expansion, and maintenance of data centers across Canada. Responsibilities included: divisional revenue, P&L, resource allocation and planning, client budgeting, proposal/presentation development, due diligence / client site selection, facility audits, and training. The department also included a team of engineers dedicated to data center maintenance and vendor management. A brief client list is: Rogers Communication, TELUS, Bell Canada, Ontario Lottery/Gaming, and Air Canada including oversight for the first and third Kyoto Unit installations in North America. As a project manager in the BMS/Controls marketplace, he managed projects in the commercial, industrial, academic, healthcare laboratory, hospital, and high-tech industries. He was involved in all aspects of a project’s cycle from design, construction, installation, start-up, commissioning, validation, and service for building automation systems. Project responsibilities included: scheduling, coordinating all implementation labor, change control, review and preparation of project proposals, quotations, and all financial decisions on projects. Mr. Egger served as a primary point of contact for coordination and communication with customers, end users, trade contractors, and sub-contractors. With his skill as a project engineer, Mr. Egger managed day-to- day issues on capital improvement projects. Responsibilities included: designing and troubleshooting BAS networks, reviewing and preparing project submittals, coordinating internal implementation labor, procuring of material, compiling “As-built” and O&M documentation, and coordinating schedule milestones with general contractors. Analyzed facility control system failures and provided resolution. Erik was also employed as a Systems Engineer at Brinjac, Kambic, & Associates in Harrisburg, PA. For two years he analyzed, designed, and drafted various components of mechanical, control, and piping systems for HVAC projects. Responsibilities ranged from design of hardware components for systems, procuring of parts, and coordination of commissioning labor. Education and Affiliations: Mr. Egger is a graduate of Lehigh University earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He also earned a Master’s of Science in Project Management and Master’s Certificate from Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey. LEED Accredited March, 2009 Engineer in Training – EIT, 1994

David Caples

Channel Development and Partner Ecosystems - Cyxtera Technologies

David Caples, is now with the Channel Development & Partner Ecosystems team, and brings over 25 years of Hybrid IT & Data Center Services experience to Cyxtera. David has worked for early market start-ups, and global solutions providers, including; Interliant-NaviSite, Ernst Young Technologies, Conceivium Solutions, Rackspace, Cogeco-Peer 1, and Centurylink. Cyxtera is the 2nd largest Data Center Colocation Services & Secure Infrastructure Solutions provider, with 57 data centers across 29 global markets. David has held numerous leadership roles in direct sales & indirect channel, working together with technology platforms, and within the ecosystem of data center-based hybrid solutions providers. David and his family live in the center of the data center universe in Ashburn, VA, together with wife Michelle, and son Evan, a recent, still-exuberant Kindergarten-graduate, and very excited, pending-1st grader.

Robert Faktorow

Vice Chairman - CBRE

Rob Faktorow is a Vice Chairmen with CBRE. For 32 years, Mr. Faktorow has practiced a multi-disciplined approach and developed expertise in both the data center sales and leasing disciplines. Mr. Faktorow was an early entry into the data center business and in 1997 was the founding member and practice group leader of the firm’s Technology Practice Group. With his multi-disciplined experience, Mr. Faktorow stands alone in his versatility of real estate skills and offers a unique perspective in the advisory process. This diversity of expertise and knowledge has earned Mr. Faktorow the reputation as one of the foremost real estate experts in the United States. Mr. Faktorow is consistently one of the top producers in North America for CBRE. He has completed transactions totaling over 35 million square feet during his career.

Stan Blackwell

Director, Customer Solutions & Strategic Partnerships - Dominion Virginia Power

Stan Blackwell is responsible for the management of large customers throughout the Central and Northern regions of Virginia. Additionally, he is responsible for all economic development activities in Dominion’s electric service territory. Stan has been with Dominion for 20 years in a variety of leadership roles including the following: Finance, Accounting, Electrical Design, Renewable Product Development, Contract Management, Key Account Management, and Economic Development. Before joining Dominion Virginia Power, Stan spent 9 years in the computer industry with AT&T and NCR in various financial roles supporting competitive sales organizations. Stan is currently a board member of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and a past board member of the Central Virginia Better Business Bureau, and the Central Virginia Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Stan has a Finance degree, an MBA, and holds a CPA license.

Garry Connolly​

​Founder & President | Founder & Chairman - Host in Ireland​ | GconnTec

Global Keynote, Panelist and Moderator including events in US, Singapore , Hong Kong , Dublin , London , Monaco and Costa Rica. 30 years experience in common sense and assisting Foreign Direct investment into Europe, Founder of award winning Host in Ireland and recognised at one of the top 50 EMEA Influencers in Cloud and Data centres 2017 by Data Economy June 2017 and Runner up in Data Centre Individual of year at DCS Awards May 2017. Demonstrates a Pragmatic and common sense approach to Data Centre Site Selection, Sales, Negotiation, Company Start ups, mentoring and strategic thinking, Getting things done, facilitating logical and straightforward thinking, bringing things and people together and getting results, timely an accurate results orientated, comfortable at either board or operational level, FDI, IT, ICT, Experienced, Data Centres, Pan EU DC Site Selection, Cloud Computing, Real Estate, startup management.

Joerg Desler

President - STULZ Air Technology Systems, Inc.

Julie Forsht

Manager, Eastern Region - Powersmiths International Corp.

Garay "Doc" Goglio

Senior Account Executive, Mission Critical Data Centers & Industrial - Boland

Mr. Goglio has more than 40 years of experience in the HVAC (Heating, Ventilating & Air Conditioning) Service/Construction industry gained from performing trade work and extensive project management. He is also a senior- level resource in providing project development, troubleshooting mechanical systems, and retro-commissioning management. At Boland, Mr. Goglio serves as the Subject Matter Expert for Mission Critical Data Centers including account management, preparing service contracts, service repair, and retrofit and replacement work. Mr. Goglio also supports the development team in providing site surveys, troubleshooting, design review, and retro-commissioning support. He has developed strong client relationships and gained client trust through his ability to solve customer problems and generate solutions offerings.

Mike Herwald

Manager​,​ North America​ - Data Center Business Area - Munters Corporation

David Ibarra

Mission Critical Group Leader - DPR Construction

An expert in electrical systems, David Ibarra is a group leader for the Advanced Technology-Mission Critical Core Market Group at DPR Construction, one of the top technical builders and data center/telecom contractors in the United States. He is a valuable team player, technical lead, and trusted partner with over 27 years of experience (20 with DPR) as an electrical engineer on data center, semiconductor, substations, power plants, and oil production/manufacturing facilities. David has worked on more than $1.3 billion of data center projects throughout his career for industry leaders such as Equinix, Facebook, Digital Realty, AT&T and Yahoo. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering in Power Systems from URU University in Venezuela and is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Accredited Professional. David has also been selected by the USGBC’s LEED Steering Committee for the Datacenter Adaptation Working Group and will be involved in making recommendations to change existing LEED credits specific to data centers. For more information about DPR Construction, please visit www.dpr.com.

​John Kolar

VP, Mission Critical Solutions - Kyoto Cooling

John Kolar is Vice President of Mission Critical Solutions for Kyoto Cooling. John has been instrumental in developing and advancing best practice design for development of products for strategic supply of Mission Critical air handlers across geographies and climatic conditions to the REIT and Large Colocation markets, driving modularity, net cost reduction and speed of delivery with solutions tuned to client needs. John obtained his Bachelor of Science Engineering degree from Ohio State University. John draws on 20 years of management level client and engineering interface and large project experience, including extensive involvement in all aspects of major building systems projects, blending best practice MEP design, Central Plant, Process Cooling, BioHazard Containment, CBR System Design, Laboratory and Clean room system design including class 1000, 100 and 10 experience. This multidisciplinary knowledge informs a Mission Critical Focus on Reliability, First Cost, Modularity and Lifetime Cost. He began his career in 1994, and has been instrumental in Data Cooling Technologies growth in several high tech air handling and process areas. John provides technical thought leadership within the International mission critical market. He is a regular presenter at technical conferences Together with other members of the Data Cooling Technologies Mission Critical Group John is growing the firm’s national and international presence to bring innovative, high performance solutions to clients globally.

Kevin Jackson

Founder - GovCloud Network

Kevin L. Jackson is the Founder and CEO of GovCloud Network, a consultancy specializing in solutions that meet critical commercial and government operational requirements. Prior positions include VP & General Manager Cloud Services NJVC, VP Federal Systems at Sirius Computer Solutions, worldwide Sales Executive at IBM, Vice President Global IT Project Office at JP Morgan Chase, and CTO at SENTEL Corporation. His formal education includes a MS Computer Engineering from Naval Postgraduate School; MA National Security & Strategic Studies from Naval War College; and a BS Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy. Mr. Jackson is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Applied Information Technology at the George Mason University Volgenau School of Engineering. Through his “Cloud Musings” blog, Mr. Jackson has been recognized as one of Cloud Computing Journal “World’s 30 Most Influential Cloud Bloggers” (2009, 2010), a Huffington Post Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts on Twitter (2013) and the author of a FedTech Magazine “Must Read Federal IT Blog” (2012, 2013). In 2012, he was also named a “Cyber Security Visionary” by U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine. His first book, GovCloud: Cloud Computing for the Business of Government was published by Government Training Inc. and released in March 2011. His second book, released in 2012 by the same publisher, is titled “GovCloud II: Implementation and Cloud Brokerage Services”. He is also a co-author of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance whitepaper “Cloud Computing: Risks, Benefits, and Mission Enhancement for the Intelligence Community”.

Jim McEnteggart

Senior Vice President, Operational Risk Management - Primary Integration Solutions

Jim is Senior Vice President and is responsible for the Operational Risk Management (ORM) consulting practice, Jim brings his 25 years of mission critical design, commissioning and operations experience to bear. Jim’s career spans utility power plant operations to MEP consulting engineer. The past twenty years have been focused on facilities operations and commissioning. He has lent his expertise to client projects ranging from small system replacements to large scale cogeneration projects. As an expert in maintenance planning and processes, Jim has assisted clients in optimizing their operations, balancing the benefit of maintenance against the risk and cost associated with it. Beginning his hands on education at SUNY Maritime College in Ft. Schuyler, NY where he was conferred a Bachelors of Engineering in Marine Engineering. Since finishing his undergraduate work, Jim has engaged in continuous education and training to expand the breadth of knowledge. Jim is a registered professional engineer in New York, and holds a Master of Science in Marine Engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, in addition to Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Marist College Jim holds numerous other industry certifications, including DCEP, LEED AP, CXA to name a few.

Jeff Moerdler

Member - Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC

Jeff is the head of the Real Estate and Communications practices in New York. With experience including almost 30 years as a general commercial real estate attorney, he has worked with many large national companies — particularly in the high-tech, telecommunications, financial services, health care, supermarket, and oil and gas sectors — as well as numerous smaller local clients. His real estate practice is both national and local and includes representation of landlords and tenants in all types of leases; counseling owners and developers in the acquisition, sale, development, and renovation of property; advising lenders and borrowers in commercial loans; and the representation of all parties in real estate litigation. During the past 30 years, he has developed a unique specialty practice in the intersection of real estate with technology, communications, and energy issues. He has extensive experience representing landlords, tenants, and communications service providers in the leasing, purchase, sale, and financing of data centers and switch facilities, colocation facilities, radio and television broadcast antennas, distributed and in-building antenna systems, rooftop antennas, and fiber-optic transactions as well as the wiring of buildings for broadband communications access. Jeff has also negotiated thousands of rooftop and cellular antenna leases, inside wiring agreements, antenna tower leases, and data center, colocation and switch facility leases throughout the country — covering over 500 million square feet. He has also devoted a considerable portion of his practice to power and energy issues related to real estate and other technology matters, including large solar and wind installations and bulk power purchases. Jeff is also a member of the firm's Sports Law Practice. Jeff counsels developers, regional centers, senior lenders, and institutions on the strategic use of EB-5 capital in large-scale real estate transactions. Jeff has served as counsel to several EB-5 issuers and regional centers, with a specific focus on the real estate law aspects of transactions. Jeff also advises clients in the EB-5 space on all aspects of deploying capital into projects and has experience as well in negotiating intercreditor agreements on behalf of senior lenders and EB-5 regional centers. A frequent speaker on real estate topics, Jeff has also written a monthly column called Leasing on the Level, covering leasing topics in Real Estate Weekly. He is a member of the board of advisors and regular contributor to Commercial Lease Law Insider, Commercial Tenant’s Lease Insider, and Communications Environmental and Land Use Law Report. In addition, he frequently contributes to Mortgage and Real Estate Executives Report and is regularly quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Commercial Property News, Real Estate Weekly, and other publications. In the past, he has served in numerous governmental positions, including as assistant to the First Deputy Mayor of the City of New York and assistant to the Deputy Borough President of the Borough of Manhattan. From 1981 to 1982, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles L. Brieant, US District Judge, and later Chief Judge, for the Southern District of New York. Jeff is also an emergency medical technician on his local volunteer ambulance and coordinator of his local chapter.

Kevin Olsavsky

Principal - Jacobs Buildings & Infrastructure

With over 30 years of professional engineering experience, Kevin is a Principal and Director of Mission Critical Projects for Jacobs Buildings & Infrastructure, a Fortune 500 global provider of mission critical facility solutions. A graduate of Penn State University with a degree in Architectural Engineering, for the last 11 years he has led Jacobs teams in the successful delivery of critical data center projects up to $1.2B in construction value and 100 MW in total capacity for our clients. In addition to design, he has provided a variety of services including planning/site selection studies, audits, risk assessments,construction cost estimating, scheduling and commissioning of systems.

Buddy Rizer

Executive Director - Loudoun County Department of Economic Development

Stephen Altizer

President - Compu-Dynamics

With more than 20 years of experience building some of the world’s most sophisticated government and commercial facilities, Steve brings our clients the leadership, commitment and unparalleled expertise needed for 24/7/365 operations. Steve’s obsession with advanced technology, his real-world construction experience and his passion for highly responsive customer service provide the foundation for the Compu Dynamics service promise. In 2002, Steve founded the Andrew Browning Group (now Compu Dynamics). Prior to that, he served as a senior executive with several nationally ranked general and mechanical contractors. His work led him across the United States and to distant countries. Throughout his career, Steve has been a student of, and thought leader in, the technology and science behind today’s modern building environments. This interest has naturally led to an affinity for clients whose requirements drive them toward facilities that are smart, clean, safe, reliable, and secure. Steve earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration, both from the University of Virginia.

Matthew Gallagher

Senior Vice President - JLL

Daniel Gemme

VP & General Manager, Global Critical Facilities Group - Turner Construction Company

Dan Gemme has over 31 years of construction management experience with Turner Construction Company. He currently serves as vice president and general manager of Turner Global Critical Facilities. Dan is responsible for managing Turner’s worldwide data center presence. Under his leadership, this nationally recognized market segment manages more than $500 million in projects annually. He also serves as the account manager for Microsoft in the United States. Dan’s approach to complex data center building starts with assembling a team composed of local and international data center staff experts who provide clients with leading edge data center trends, technology, direct equipment procurement strategies, value analysis and commissioning services. The organization has realized several successful enterprise implementations for multi-national clients in Ontario, Mississagua, Chicago, San Antonio, North Carolina, Ohio, and Columbia, Washington. He also provided oversight on many colocation data centers. Dan holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He and his wife Lisa, and their sons Eric and Brian reside in Seattle, WA.

Rashad Kawmy

Director - Leveraged Finance

Rashad Kawmy started with CapitalSource in 2008 as a Credit Analyst in Portfolio Management. In 2010 Rashad transferred to the Leveraged Finance Group as an Associate, was promoted to Vice President in March 2012 and now serves as a Director. “The most rewarding part of my job is conducting diligence on potential investment opportunities and working directly with financial sponsors. Regardless of transaction size, the diligence hurdles at CapitalSource are high and the financial sponsors that we work with are very sophisticated. This requires us to perform comprehensive company-specific and industry due diligence in order to adequately assess credit add maximum value for our financial partners.” Asked what makes CapitalSource such an attractive place to work, Rashad answers, “CapitalSource is uniquely focused on results and contributions. With a focus on hard work and a commitment to quality, employees at all levels have an opportunity to make an impact on transactions.” Rashad has had great success growing within the organization. “The culture makes it easy for us to take on responsibility beyond our jobs descriptions. By taking advantage of the opportunity to gain additional experience, employees are able to build skills and make career advancements when job opportunities become available.”

Miles Loo, Jr.

Executive Managing Director​,​ Valuation & Advisory - Cushman & Wakefield​

Miles Loo, Jr. serves as Executive Managing Director in the Los Angeles office of Cushman & Wakefield Western, Inc., where he had previously served as Executive Director, Managing Director, Director and Associate Director. He has a broad range of experience in many types of real estate assets, including office, industrial, retail, multifamily and special purpose properties. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield in 1995, he was an investment broker at an independent brokerage firm in Los Angeles, California from 1991 to 1994. He is a founder, member and leader of the Mission Critical Facilities (MCF) Group at Cushman & Wakefield. MCF specializes in 24x7 mission critical facilities, which includes data centers and life science properties. Miles Loo is the co-global practice leader of the Global Data Center Advisory Group and member of the Global Life Sciences Practice Group at Cushman & Wakefield. Mr. Loo is well recognized as the industry’s leading appraiser of data center properties in North America. His experience includes advising private equity funds and institutional investors on investments on all of the various types of data centers, including mission critical, disaster recovery data centers, colocation facilities, carrier hotels and internet gateways and life science properties all throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe comprising more than 55.0 million square feet of rentable space and 25.0 million square feet of technical/raised floor space. The assignments that he has been involved include data centers owned and/or operated by Fortune 500 corporations across numerous industries, as well as Uptime Institute Site Certified Tier III and Tier IV facilities (there are only six Site Certified Tier IV data centers in N.A.), U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Platinum, Gold and Silver and state and federal disaster recovery data centers. He has also been involved in large portfolio valuations (i.e., CarterValidus, CoreSite, Digital Realty, DuPont Fabros, GI Partners, i/o Data Centers, QTS, T5 Data Centers, Sentinel Data Centers, Vantage Data Centers, etc.) spanning across multiple states, and consulted on a number of the World’s Largest Data Centers featured in DataCenterKnowledge.

Derrick Banks Mashore

Senior Vice President - CBRE

Derrick Mashore works in the Washington, D.C. office as a Senior Vice President for CBRE’s Advisory and Transaction Services. Over the course of his 25+ year career, Mr. Mashore has closed hundreds of transactions for nonprofit, institutional and Fortune 500/1000 clients, who depend on his expertise to handle complex real estate deals for mixed-use public/private, hotels, and performing and distressed assets and office buildings.

Mehdi Paryavi

Chairman - International Data Center Authority (IDCA)

Mehdi is the President of TechXact Group and Chairman of International Data Center Authority (IDCA). He is first individual to realize the urge, pioneer the concept and advocate for “application-centric” data centers. He actively promotes data center specialization across industry verticals suited to the application needs. He is a futurist living in the present, a thought leader in true Cloud “not just Virtualized, but Realized” (as he puts it), expert strategist and transitionist between the logical abstraction layers of cloud to its physical merits and possibilities. His in-depth understanding of the “data center” and its inherited comprehensive unity of IT and Facilities merged with his sensible and realistic approach towards energy efficiency and environmentally conscious designs and implementations sheds light into the clouded ambiguities of “big data” and caters harmony to the world at large. He has led the campaign to bring knowledge, standardization, compliance, best practices, and technological developments as well as effective data center expertise to the data center industry, both nationally and internationally specially for mission-critical environments effectively for national security projects, securities and exchange projects, aviation and transport, military and defense, oil and gas, telecommunication, healthcare, etc. Mehdi is known for his immense experience, thought leadership, visionary strategies, comprehensive expertise, effective methods and systematic, yet fluid approach. Aside from his speeches in conferences, symposiums, lectures, sessions with top officials and discussions at expert assemblies, his advice and strategies are typically used as benchmarks at many government and private institutions. Thus, organizations typically seek his recommendations for best practices and approach towards their short-term and long-term planning of data center and data management.

Ross Rebraca

VP, Technology - HITT Contracting, Inc.

Ross Rebraca has more than 25 years of experience in the data center and mission critical sectors of the construction industry. Since 2006, Ross has worked at HITT and is now the vice president of the organization's technology division. He has been instrumental in launching the Technology market sector for HITT, which manages all data center construction. Ross plays an integral part in business development for the technology group given his numerous longstanding industry contacts nationwide.​