Data Center Investment Conference & Expo, South

John Sheputis

President - Infomart

John has a proven track record of building successful IT infrastructure firms. Prior to Infomart Data Centers (formerly Fortune Data Centers), John has founded and managed several Silicon Valley ventures, most of which specialized in large-scale infrastructure management and hosting of global applications. From 1999 through 2003, he was COO and Co-Founder of Totality (now a unit of Verizon Business), which helped launch and manage over 100 Internet applications for some of the nation’s most trusted and well respected firms. John also held senior management positions at Solidcore (sold to MacAfee [MFE] in 2009), BeVocal (Sold to Nuance [NUAN] in 2007), Enron, Gemini Consulting, and Accenture. John has a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School.

Eddie Schutter

Head of Critical Infrastructure Engineering - eBay

Michael Foust

Chairman, DataBank Ltd. & Vantage Data Centers - Digital Bridge Holdings, LLC

Michael Foust has over 30 years of experience in data center development and operations and institutional real estate investments including development and portfolio management. Since May 2014, Michael has served as the senior advisor for the data center industry for Digital Bridge Holdings, LLC of Boca Raton, FL and New York, NY. Digital Bridge is the lead investor in DataBank, Ltd. Michael retired from Digital Reality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR) San Francisco, CA in 2014 where he led the company's IPO and served as Chief Executive Office and as a Director from 2004 to 2014, growing the company to an enterprise value of approximately $15 billion. The company was the first public data center REIT and developed into one of the largest owners and operators of data centers in the world with investments and operations in North America, Europe, and AsiaPac. Michael also was a founder of the private equity investor GI Partners in Menlo Park, CA where he served as a Managing Director from February 2001 to the DLR IPO in 2004. He was responsible for real estate investments at GI Partners, with a strong focus on technology related assets including data centers and telecom facilities. The property portfolio was taken public as Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR) in 2004. Prior to the formation of GI Partners, Michael served as a Senior Director at CB Richard Ellis Investors in Los Angeles from 1999 to 2001. From 1995 to 1999, he was a Senior Vice President at CB Richard Ellis, where he managed regional asset services operations. From 1985 to 1995, Michael served in senior portfolio management and investment positions at Trammell Crow Company and Karsten Realty Advisors in Los Angeles and at UBS Asset Management in New York where he managed property investments for sovereign wealth and institutional investors. Prior to his real estate career, from 1979 to 1985, Michael participated in the origination of two related, international telecommunications companies, Consortium Communications International and Progressive Systems Inc. in New York and London. Michael received his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude from Harvard University. For more information on DataBank, please visit www.databank.com.

Jonathan Schildkraut

Chief Strategy Officer - CyrusOne​

Jonathan is CyrusOne’s EVP and Chief Strategy Officer and is responsible for helping the company achieve its objective of accelerating growth. He will help refine the company’s digital infrastructure strategy, overseeing new investments, mergers and acquisitions, as well as joint venture arrangements. Prior to CyrusOne, Jonathan was a senior analyst following the Communications Infrastructure & Telecom Services sectors at Guggenheim Partners, Evercore ISI, Jefferies, and Cowen & Co. – where he focused data center services, tower operators, and fiber companies. With over 20 years of experience in the telecommunications space, he has served in various roles in investing banking, operations and research earning several awards and recognitions from Institutional Investor, Thomson Reuters (formerly FT Starmine), and Forbes. Jonathan has followed the telecommunications industry since 1997 and, prior to his work in research, ran business development for Winstar, a New York based telecom company, and started his career as an investment banker at Salomon Smith Barney. He received his JD and MBA from New York University and his BA from the University of Michigan.

Romelia Flores

Distinguished Engineer & Master Inventor - IBM

Romelia Flores is one of IBM's top 500 technical executives, earning the titles of IBM Distinguished Engineer and IBM Master Inventor. She has collaborated with some of IBM's largest clients around technology innovation, Smarter Cities and Cognitive technology and is currently focused on IBM Design Thinking. Romelia holds 34 patents with an additional 30 patents pending. Romelia is a University of Texas alumnus and Baylor Honorary alumnus. In 2016, Romelia received the Great Minds in STEM Lifetime Achievement award and the Dallas Business Journal’s 2016 Women in Technology award. This year she was named InnoTech 2017 Executive of the Year.

Andrew Schaap

CEO - Aligned Energy

A data center, IT, private equity and real estate executive with over 20 years of complex transactional experience and multi-disciplinary senior leadership, Andrew Schaap is dedicated to accelerating the development of Aligned Energy’s business objectives at a critical point early in the company’s growth stage as demand for its adaptive data center approach continues to exceed expectations. As CEO, Andrew is responsible for business growth and promoting the availability of Aligned Energy’s data center and build-to-scale solutions to cloud, telecom, enterprise and managed service providers. With a thorough understanding of the evolving data center market, Andrew is responsible for cultivating an ecosystem of innovation that advances Aligned Energy’s commitment to reducing the social, economic and environmental impact of the digital era. Prior to joining Aligned Energy, Andrew held numerous leadership positions over an 11-year period with Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR). Most recently serving as Senior Vice President, he was responsible for global large-scale, client-driven data center builds and was part of the executive leadership team that grew revenue to $2 billion. He also oversaw all major international transactions, including the successful negotiation and execution of projects in Osaka, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney. Prior to Digital Realty Trust, Schaap held leadership roles at Sterling Network Services and Sysix Technologies. Andrew holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Marketing from Cornerstone University, as well as a graduate programs in Executive Negotiations and Management Training from Harvard University.

​Lance Black

Founder & CEO - VAZATA

Lance Black is President and CEO of VAZATA, founded by him in 2000. As CEO, Lance plays a fundamental leadership role in investor relations, strategic partnerships and the day-to-day operations at VAZATA. Under his guidance, VAZATA has developed and been recognized as an innovative, reliable provider in the data center, virtualization/cloud and managed IT services markets. Lance strives to challenge the bounds of technology with products that include VAZATA’s own vStructure™ IaaS platform. His ability to interest and engage visionary IT professionals and industry experts reflects in his 20 years of active, forward-thinking experience in the IT industry. Outside of VAZATA, Lance has served several local charities, nonprofit boards and has been recognized for his commitment to civic and altruistic work from several organizations over the past 20 years. Lance holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Midwestern State University.

Wayne Sadin

COO & CTO​ - Affinitas Life

Across the Marketing, Energy, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Logistics industries, Wayne Sadin has been a CIO/CTO/CDO; a software/SaaS executive; an Independent Director and Advisory Board member; and a consultant to CEOs. He is currently COO & CTO of Affinitas Life, a developer/operator of upscale Senior Living communities. He improves IT Alignment, Architecture, Agility and Ability at firms that have ‘Outgrown their IT.’ His IT teams have delivered profitable new products and transformed organizations (including a project that garnered the cover of “CIO Magazine”). Wayne has managed a changing IT landscape, from mainframes to today’s SMAC-IT (Social, Mobile Analytics, Cloud, Internet of Things) world. He has written and spoken about mobility, Governance/Risk/Compliance, IT/business alignment, customer service, cloud computing. He’s presented at the Financial Services Venture Capital Association, Oracle OpenWorld, European and US Project Leadership Conferences, Motorola Partner Conference, IDC’s Industry Insights and CIO Magazine conferences, and the Echelon One Information Security Summit. Wayne earned BS degrees in Computer Science and Business Administration (summa cum laude) from Boston University; an MS degree in Management of Technology from the University of Texas; completed the ‘Delivering Information Services’ program at Harvard Business School and the ‘Cybersecurity: Technology, Application & Policy’ course at MIT; and was named a “Board Governance Fellow” by the National Association of Corporate Directors He has been recognized by Computerworld as both a ‘Premier 100 IT Leader’ and an Honors Program ‘Laureate.’

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.

Mark Thiele

Chief Strategy & Chief Information Officer - Apcera

Mark Thiele’s successful career in IT spans 25 years and has focused on both operating roles and on driving cloud adoption across enterprises of all sizes. Mark has deep industry experience and extensive knowledge of the requirements of policy-driven cloud computing and drives cross-functional strategic initiatives as Chief Strategy Officer for Apcera. Prior to joining Apcera, Mark was the executive vice president of ecosystem development at Switch SUPERNAP, builders of the world’s highest-rated data centers. He is also the president and founder of Data Center Pulse, an organization created to promote best practices in the data center industry. Mark has held executive roles at HP, Gilead, VMware and Brocade and is a member of nonprofit groups including The Green Grid and Infrastructure 2.0, where he advocates for data center and cloud industry evolution. A globally recognized speaker at leading industry events on a wide range of topics including cloud, IoT, data center, DevOps, and IT leadership, Mark is a regular content contributor to InformationWeek, GigaOm, Data Center Knowledge and other publications. Mark also serves on the technical advisory board of several startups.

Bryan Marsh

Bryan Marsh, VP, Global Asset Management - Digital Realty Trust

Bryan Marsh is a Vice President of Digital Realty and serves as the company’s Portfolio Manager for its U.S. Central region. In this capacity, he has overall responsibility for strategic planning, acquisitions, development, operations, leasing and financial performance of 55 buildings with 8.1 million rentable square feet. Digital Realty is a leading global data center Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with 157 properties in 12 countries and 33 markets representing 27 million square feet in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Digital Realty is one of the top 11 publicly-traded REITs in the U.S. with a market capitalization of approximately $18.9 billion, and the company is a member of the prestigious S&P 500. Prior to joining Digital Realty, Bryan was a Senior Vice President and Partner at Equastone, a private equity firm, where he oversaw a 4.3 million square foot office portfolio in Dallas, and was the city’s third largest office landlord. He also was formerly a Vice President with RREEF, a pension fund advisor and investment management firm, where he handled over 6 million square feet of office and industrial space in Texas and Oklahoma. Bryan has been in the commercial real estate industry for 35 years having started as a commercial real estate broker with CBRE. He has closed real estate transactions in over 250 cities and 15 states during his career. Bryan serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce. He also is a member of the Board of Directors of Tech Titans, the largest technology trade association in North Texas. He graduated from the University of North Texas with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a double major in Finance and Real Estate.

Jerry Blair​

Co-Founder & ​Senior ​VP - DataBank

As Co-Founder, Jerry Blair was instrumental in DataBank's inception in 2005. In his role as Sr. Vice President of Sales, Blair is charged with executing the company's sales strategy. With a successful track record spanning more than 20 years in senior sales management, Blair's experience and proven ability to implement results-driven direct and channel-focused sales programs is a very welcome continued asset to the company. Prior to DataBank, Blair was Vice President of Sales for Switch and Data and LayerOne. He has also served as General Manager of Sales for Lucent Technologies, and has held sales management positions with various industry leaders including ICG Communications, Nortel Communications and Wellfleet Communications.

Josh Snowhorn

VP & General Manager, Interconnection - CyrusOne

Josh currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Open Internet Exchange, and brings 15 years of data center and interconnection experience to his role, which is largely dedicated to expanding the CyrusOne National Internet Exchange (IX) across the company’s worldwide data center locations. Josh and his team have designed and implemented the CyrusOne National IX strategy to significantly increase the number of telecom and cloud providers available to customers, enabling Internet peering and leveraging industry-changing interconnection ecosystems. This proprietary and innovative technology was honored by DataCenter Dynamics as the 2014 Outsourced Innovation of the Year. Before joining CyrusOne in 2012, Josh spent the previous 12 years as Vice President of Business Development at Terremark, a global Data Center and Cloud services provider acquired by Verizon in 2011. There he developed new business in emerging markets and drove all business related to peering and interconnection throughout the company’s portfolio. Beyond his previous role at Terremark, and his current role at CyrusOne, he is currently affiliated with industry-leading organizations such as the Open Internet Exchange Association, the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG), Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE), the European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX), and the Global Peering Forum (GPF), a joint venture that he co-founded with Equinix, AMS-IX, DE-CIX, and LINX. Josh serves on the Global Peering Forum Board of Directors, the Open-IX Board of Directors, the McLaren Car Club Board of Directors and the Austin Waldorf School Board of Trustees. He resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, two daughters, two dogs and a flock of chickens.

Dave Leonard

Chief Data Center Officer - ViaWest

As Chief Data Center Officer, Dave directs the design and construction of new data centers and data center expansions, as well as defining the standards and practices for operation of ViaWest’s data centers. He is also responsible for strategy and positioning of the data center colocation product lines.Prior to ViaWest, Dave founded Critical Infrastructure Consulting LLC., and was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Infocrossing for nine years. He was also the CTO for (i)Structure, a division of Level(3) Communications which Infocrossing later acquired. Prior to that, he was CTO of Corporate Express, Inc. based in Broomfield, Colorado.

Mike Armstrong

Director - GI Partners

Mike Armstrong is a Director of GI Partners and is responsible for sourcing and executing direct investments in Real Estate. Prior to joining GI Partners, Mr. Armstrong was a Vice President at J.P. Morgan Asset Management in San Francisco where he held acquisitions and investment roles for real estate and infrastructure, most recently in its Global Real Assets division and prior to that, in its Junius Real Estate Partners division. Early in his career, he worked at Financial Security Assurance, Inc. in New York focused on municipal and asset-backed finance.

Sandy Thielamay

VP, Technology - Infomart Data Centers

Sandy Thielamay is responsible for new product development and providing technology leadership for Infomart Data Centers' operations teams. In addition, Mr. Thielamay is leading the design, build, and commercial go-to-market strategy of Infomart's channel partner initiative. Mr. Thielamay's technical, business development and management experience has spanned Africa, Europe and North America. Prior to joining Infomart, he served as the Director, Central Region, for IPSoft. Previously, he was a General Manager at State Informatics Limited. He was also a partner and Vice President of Sales at KlioSoft Inc., and the Vice President of Engineering and CTO of Totality, Inc., where he directed all network architecture and implementation for clients.

Nat Tafuri

VP, Operations & Engineering - zColo by Zayo

Nat Tafuri serves as Vice President of Operations for zColo. He is responsible for all Data Center Operations, Facility Engineering, Construction, Maintenance and Service Delivery. Prior to joining Zayo, Nat was Director of Facility Engineering & Construction at Level 3 Communications and Director of Facilities Engineering & Construction at MFS Communications. Nat studied Electrical Engineering at the Pratt Institute.​

Rob Morris

Managing Partner - Skybox Datacenters

Rob is a leading expert within the data center industry and has completed over 50 megawatts of mission critical projects both nationally and internationally. His previous roles include U.S. Practice Leader for Cassidy Turley’s Datacenter Solutions Group as well as Senior Associate to Cushman & Wakefield’s Datacenter Advisory Group.

Reid Goetz

Vice President - Hillwood Properties

Reid Goetz serves as Vice President for Hillwood Properties, the developer of AllianceTexas. Goetz performs a key role in the leasing, development, planning, and marketing of the industrial, office, medical and land assets at AllianceTexas. A world-class, master-planned development, AllianceTexas spans over 18,000 acres, includes more than 43 million square feet of commercial development and over 470 companies, many of which are listed in the Fortune 500, Global 500 or Forbes’ list of top private companies. Goetz works with new and existing corporate residents to identify and implement site selection opportunities within the AllianceTexas development. Goetz has broad experience and knowledge in development, leasing, asset management, sales, economic development, negotiations and business development. Since joining Hillwood in 2005, Goetz has worked with a number of valued corporate customers within AllianceTexas, including Facebook, BAE Systems, Cargill Inc., Callaway Golf Company, Exel, Genco, General Electric Company, McKesson Corporation, Safeway Inc., and Samsung Electronics America. Goetz actively participates in a number of real estate organization and activities, most recently graduating from the 2014 Associate Leadership Council (ALC) class. In addition, Goetz serves on the Board for the Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth (RECGFW) and previously served as Chairman of Young Professionals Forum (YPF) in 2012. Goetz is also involved with the Touchdown Club, a philanthropic fundraising club supporting the Rise School of Dallas.

Bruno Berti

VP, Product Management - RagingWire Data Centers

Bruno Berti is Vice President of Product Management at RagingWire Data Centers, Inc., responsible for the strategy, planning, creation, and launch of all data center colocation and services offerings.Bruno has over 20 years of product management experience working in various industries, including: data center, disaster recovery, software/SaaS, construction, and telecommunications. Prior to joining RagingWire, Bruno was the Senior Director of Product Management for SunGard’s solutions around workforce continuity and workplace recovery. He was also the Senior Director of Product Management and Marketing at Meridian Systems (a Trimble Navigation company) responsible for their enterprise lifecycle management software (SaaS based) solutions for capital buildings and programs. Mr. Berti earned a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada

Peter Hopper

CEO & Co-Founder - DH Capital

Peter is the Co-Founder and CEO of DH Capital, LLC and has led the firm since its’ founding in 2001. During the past 15 years Peter has been central to establishing the firm as the preeminent advisory practice in the data center, cloud and managed hosting sector where DH has advised on transactions totaling more than $10.4 billion. Peter has led many of the firms’ largest M&A transactions including advising Telx in its $1.89 billion sale to Digital Realty, advising Softlayer on its $450 million sale to GI Partners, advising Latisys on its’ $675 million sale to Zayo and advising Cervalis on its $400 million sale to CyrusOne. In addition, Peter has managed many of the firms’ capital placements including advising DataPipe on ABRY’s $150m equity investment and advising Ascenty on its $125 million senior equity raise. Peter is a frequent speaker at important industry events including the 451 Group’s HCTS event in Las Vegas, CapRate’s data center events in New York and Chicago and is a frequent panelist at various DataCenter Dynamics events. Prior to Co-Founding DH Capital Peter served as CEO of Duro Communications, a consolidator of ISP and data center assets in the Southeastern US. Prior to Duro Communications, Peter served as VP of Business Development for Helicon Cable Communications, a privately held top 20 cable MSO, which was sold to Charter Communications in 1999 for $550m. Peter is a graduate of Lehigh University where he received a BS degree in Finance.

Trey Berndt

Executive Vice President - Carrier-1 Data Centers

Trey comes to Carrier-1 after being a part of the extremely successful CoreXchange/ColoUnlimited team for nearly five years. Rising up from an Account Executive to VP of Sales, he helped to sell out of all available inventory in the Dallas, Texas facilities while maintaining an unheard of 99.5% customer retention rate. Prior to working for CoreXchange, Trey served as the President of Blue Wireless & Data Inc. and in Business Development for DSG Technology. Trey graduated from Oklahoma City University with his Bachelors in Philosophy and Humanities. Trey believes his keys to success are to maintain a cutting edge understanding of the data center industry, always provide the most attentive customer service and to never be outworked. Over the years Trey has worked hard to create a trusted group of partners to not only network with, but to be "go-to" advisors with his client base.

Hugh Carspecken

Managing Partner & CEO - DartPoints

Hugh has nearly 20 years of cross-industry technology experience, from data networking to fiber optics to wireless infrastructure. He spent the early half of his career in Silicon Valley, helping to start and grow several start-ups in Silicon Valley, such as ONI Systems and FiberTower. In these roles Hugh helped bridge the gap between the state of technology its implementation to drive the technology’s adoption in the market. After this, Hugh held a senior leadership role at Fujitsu Network Communications, launching Fujitsu’s multi-technology solutions organization. Applying the lessons learned through these various experiences, Hugh is adapting how data centers will meet the growing and changing requirements of today’s businesses. He received his A.B. and B.E. in Engineering from Dartmouth College and his Master in Engineering Management from the Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck School of Business. Hugh, his wife, and his two daughters reside in Dallas, Texas.

Matthew Brown

Senior Director, Site Reliability Engineering - Proofpoint

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.

John Zuckerman

Managing Director - Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.

Ed d’Agostino

Vice President - DE-CIX North America

Mr. Ed d’Agostino serves as the Vice President of DE-CIX North America. He joined DE-CIX North America in April 2014, where within 18-months Mr. d’Agostino led the team in signing more than 100 customers garnering global​ ​recognition by Capacity for awards first in 2014 as the Best North American​ ​Project and aiding the company to win the Best Internet Exchange award in 2015.​ ​Prior to DE-CIX, Mr. d’Agostino was the Director of​ ​Sales, IP Exchange Services for PTGi’s Layer 2 IP Exchange platform where for eight years he led all sales​ ​activities across North America, Europe and Asia. Mr. d’Agostino also served as​ ​the Director of Business development for CRG West (now Coresite), a Product​ ​Director for Metro Metromedia Fiber Network (now Zayo) and Teleport​ ​Communications Group (now AT&T). Mr. d’Agostino earned a M.B.A. from the​ ​University​ ​of Virginia, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and a​ ​B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College.​ ​Mr. d’Agostino is a recognized source and commentator on topics, including peering,​ ​Internet Exchange and IP traffic worldwide.

​Jeff Ferry

Director - Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group

Jeff Ferry is a Director with Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group and has been with GS since helping to start up the group in March of 2004. GSSLG focuses on providing a wide range of capital, including senior debt, 2nd lien, mezzanine capital and preferred equity to middle market companies to support leveraged buyouts, expansion/growth capital needs as well as recapitalizations and other financings. GSSLG has been a very active investor in the data center, managed services, IT services and hosting space, with debt and/or equity investments over the past few years in growing companies like Viawest, Datapipe, Iweb, Telx, Cervalis and Endurance International.

Bo Bond

Managing Director, Central Region - JLL

Mr. Bond is Managing Director and Co-Leader of JLL's global Data Center Solutions practice team. He is a recognized leader in the real estate industry whose knowledge of technical issues, infrastructure, and labor assessment has allowed him to develop the unique skill set required for mission critical and contact center requirements. He works with clients to develop the necessary strategies to meet their individual objectives including tenant and owner representation, investment sales and acquisitions, leasing and development of these unique assets. Mr. Bond has over 24 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry. He was with The Staubach Company for ten years, and became a member of the Jones Lang LaSalle team when they merged with Staubach in July 2008. Mr. Bond has successfully negotiated over 20 million square feet of real estate transactions in multiple states.

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.

Alan North

Founder & President - NORLINX Systems, LLC

Andy Baxter

Principal / Science & Technology - Page

Andy Baxter has over 25 years of experience in the design and construction of advanced mission critical facilities, with a particular focus on projects for semiconductors, pharmaceutical/bio-research, and data centers. Since joining Page in 1998, Andy has been involved in some of the firm’s largest and most complex projects, including large data centers for clients across the country and the 1.6M-square-foot Samsung Austin Semiconductor Fab A2, the largest wafer fabrication facility in the U.S. One of his more recent data center projects is the United Airlines Data Center and Control Facility, designed with state-of-the-art mechanical systems to maintain uninterrupted operations even during catastrophic events. The project, covering a total area of 308,000 square feet, meets current Uptime Institute’s Tier IV Concurrently Maintainable standards.

Darrell Auterson

President - McKinney Economic Development Corporation

Darrell Auterson joined the McKinney Economic Development Corporation in July 2016. Darrell most recently served as President and CEO of the York County Economic Alliance in York County, Pennsylvania since 2012 and previously worked in the same role at the York County Economic Development Corporation since 2002. During his time as President and CEO of the York County Economic Alliance / York County Economic Development Corporation, Darrell facilitated major projects resulting in the retention and creation of more than 14,000 jobs and nearly $2 billion of public and private investment. He led the merger of the economic development corporation with the Chamber of Commerce to create the York County Economic Alliance. Darrell has also previously held business and economic development positions in Indiana, Illinois, North Carolina and California. Darrell serves on the Board of Directors for the International Economic Development Council and is a member of several professional economic and business development organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in urban regional studies from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana.

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.

Matt Macnak

Manager, Critical Infrastructure - QTS​

Matt is the Site Manager for QTS’ Fort Worth Data Center and is responsible for managing all aspects of the day-to-day and long term operations at QTS' newest data center. Matt joined QTS in 2016 and was instrumental in the design of QTS’ newest data center project, including overseeing the conversion of QTS Fort Worth from a corporate data center to a colocation facility. During his tenure at QTS, Matt has been responsible for data center electrical design, engineering procedure development, and energy efficiency projects across QTS’ data centers in the western region. Prior to joining QTS, Matt served as a Submarine Officer in the United States Navy. His assignments included six patrols onboard the USS ALASKA GOLD and one tour at the Pentagon where he was responsible for briefing the Chief of Naval Operations on worldwide military operations and engagements. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University and a Master of Science Degree from Johns Hopkins University in Electrical Engineering.

Jim Leach

VP, Marketing - RagingWire Data Centers

Over his 30-year career, James Leach has been part of the core teams developing internet, telecommunications, and infrastructure solutions, including: DNS security, global web domains, performance monitoring, industry vertical solutions, content delivery networks (CDN), virtual private networks (VPN), cloud computing, and data center colocation. Mr. Leach spent the first 15 years of his career at IBM, starting out as an engineer and then moving into sales, business development, and marketing. For the last 15 years, James has been a top marketing executive at Savvis, Internap, Neustar, Harris Corporation, and now RagingWire. At RagingWire, Mr. Leach is the overall marketing leader responsible for a data center portfolio of 1.5 million square feet and 113 megawatts of critical power in the United States and a global data center platform of 140 locations in 19 countries and regions as part of the Nexcenter brand of NTT Communications. In addition to his duties at RagingWire, Mr. Leach serves as the Chairperson of the Leadership Board for the Data Center and Cloud Infrastructure Committee of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), one of the largest and most influential technology associations in the United States. Mr. Leach also was nominated and approved by the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to be a member of the Executive Committee of the Loudoun Economic Development Advisory Commission (EDAC), and currently serves in that role.

Ben Kaplan

Senior Vice President - Turner Construction Company

A native of Philadelphia, Ben has 30 years of construction management experience with Turner Construction Company. He currently serves as senior vice president of Turner Global Critical Facilities. Ben is responsible for managing Turner’s worldwide data center presence. Under his direction, the firm has delivered $3.0 billion in data center projects over the last five years with over $1.0B in place in 2016. Turner’s mission critical business is a strategic focus of the organization and a nationally recognized leader in the market segment. Ben’s approach to complex data center building starts with assembling a team composed of local and international data center experts. These experts provide clients with leading edge data center trends, technology, prefabrication, supply chain, value analysis and commissioning throughout the project planning and construction process.

David Liggitt

Founder & CEO - datacenterHawk

David is the founder and president of datacenterHawk. He has been active in the data center industry since 2007. Before becoming an entrepreneur, David managed data center transactions for Fortune 500 companies with a global commercial real estate company. He is passionate about helping industry professionals make well-informed decisions. David earned his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and currently lives in Dallas with his wife and two boys.

Bryan Loewen

Executive Managing Director - Newmark Knight Frank (NKF)

Bryan Loewen leads Newmark Knight Frank’s global data center practice. In this role, Mr. Loewen works closely with its 400+ worldwide offices to assist local and multinational organizations in developing business continuity plans and finding and developing mission critical strategies involving data centers, colocation sites and hosting facilities. Since 2004, Mr. Loewen has specialized in data center and other mission critical real estate properties. His clientele includes major tenants, landlords, developers and private equity companies with requirements specific to the data center sector. Prior to entering the real estate industry, Mr. Loewen worked for over a decade inside the telecommunications and energy industries, holding a broad range of technical, financial, and executive management responsibilities. Mr. Loewen’s firsthand knowledge and experience within data centers offers unparalleled real estate expertise to all mission critical facilities.

Joe Reele

VP, Datacenter Solution Architects - Schneider Electric

Joe Reele is Vice President, Datacenter Solution Architects at Schneider Electric, responsible for bringing together the full suite of Schneider Electric products and services to provide unparalleled right sized, innovative and complete solutions for our customers. Joe influences and inspires a large team of highly talented professionals to provide cutting edge designs, innovative solutions and operational models for Mission Critical Facilities/Operations. Joe has an impressive track record of more than 10 years of hands-on experience in strategic planning, business unit development and growth, project development, operations management, and system engineering strategies. Joe provides strong technical and leadership skills with proven ability to successfully analyze an organization's critical operational business requirements, identify deficiencies and potential opportunities, and develop innovative and cost-effective solutions to meet the customer's business objectives.

Paola Saibene

CEO - TXYSAI

Paola Saibene is the CEO of TXYSAI, a business and technology consulting company. She has 22 years of IT-practitioner experience, having held multiple C-level roles in multi-billion dollar organizations. Paola blends her technology experience with her psychology and literature post-graduate degrees, bringing an ecosystem approach to the evolving digital era.

Stefanie Williams

Analyst, Multi-Tenant Datacenters - 451 Research

Stefanie Williams joined 451 Research in April 2011. She is a member of the Multi-Tenant Datacenters team, covering North America and Australia. Her key research areas include state and local level incentives and compliance, including FedRAMP, HIPAA, ISO, PCI-DSS, SSAE 16, SOC 2 & 3, and Uptime Institute M&O and Tier Certifications. Prior to joining 451 Research, Stefanie owned and operated an editing and document development business focused on technology and the sciences. She has a diverse background in customer service and business management. She has been quoted in the Tampa Bay Times and the Plano Community News, and has served as a panelist for CapRate. She is also widely cited in industry and trade publications. Stefanie holds a BA in English-technical writing from the University of North Texas.

Chris Herrmann

Senior Vice President - CBRE

Chris Herrmann is a Senior Vice President of Advisory & Transaction Services located in Dallas, and is a member of CBRE’s Data Center Solutions group. Chris has more than 20 years of tenant representation experience consulting clients in the search for optimal real estate solutions, the financial modeling of potential transactions, and the negotiation for the successful acquisition of office, data center, and colocation facilities. Chris has represented tenants on more than 600 transactions in his career totaling approximately 10 million square feet of office space, 2 million square feet of data center space, and approximately 100mw of colocation facilities. His experience includes not only representing clients searching for space in the Dallas area, but also in account management of transactions across the United States and Canada. Chris completed his Masters of Business Administration in 1993, and immediately began his career in commercial real estate with a boutique tenant representation firm. Chris left this firm to help form the Bernet Company in 1997, focused on national data center site selection and consulting. This firm was acquired by Trammell Crow Company (now CBRE) in 1998, where Mr. Herrmann remains as in integral member of the Data Center Solutions group. He now partners with Brant Bernet to provide expertise in the due diligence of strategy consulting, site selection, and acquisition of all asset types within the data center industry, ranging from one rack to multi-megawatt colocation assignments, to the acquisition of land or facilities for the development of data center space. Chris is consistently recognized as a Top Producer within CBRE and in comparison to his peers by the Dallas Business Journal.​​