Rhonda Ascierto is Vice President of Research at Uptime Institute, delivering forward-looking research and consulting to help Uptime Institute clients and the Network community adapt to and prepare for the major changes expected in digital infrastructure ahead. Ascierto, a well-known and influential data center analyst, focuses on emerging technologies and innovation at the intersection of IT and infrastructure.

Ascierto previously served as Research Director of Datacenters and Critical Infrastructure at 451 Research (both companies are part of the 451 Group). She has spent nearly a decade at the crossroads of IT and business as an analyst, consultant, speaker and editor covering the technology and competitive forces that shape the global IT industry.

Before joining 451 Research, Rhonda was a senior analyst in energy and sustainability IT at Ovum. Previously, she had a successful career as an IT reporter and editor, mostly in Silicon Valley, at a number of well-known industry publications.

As CEO and Managing Partner in fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547), Todd is involved with running the operations of the business as well as business development and firm strategy. Mr. Raymond has a reputation of successfully building enterprise value, taking companies from start up to executing an exit strategy. Prior to joining 1547, Mr. Raymond served as CEO, President, COO, General Counsel, Controller and a Director of The Telx Group, Inc. during which time he guided the company through multiple financings, acquisitions, SEC registration and two sales to private equity firms. Prior to joining Telx, Mr. Raymond was a founder of Stratus Services Group, Inc., an engineering and staffing services company, and served as its General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. During his tenure, he guided Stratus through multiple private capital raises, the acquisition of over a dozen businesses, and in April 2000, the Initial Public Offering of the company’s stock on NASDAQ. Todd holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Fairfield University, a Juris Doctor (JD) from Albany Law School of Union University and is completing a Master of Laws (LLM) in Finance Law from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. He is a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO), the Wine & Food Society of New York and the American Corporate Counsel Association as well as multiple bar and professional organizations.

Thomas (Tom) Brown is responsible for planning and implementing the company’s strategy, and managing the overall revenue growth of the company. Mr. Brown joined Hudson IX (formally DataGryd) in 2018 and brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in start-up, turnaround and high-growth operations. He has a proven track record of success in strategic and tactical market development, creation of brand awareness and customer relationship management. Prior to joining Hudson IX (formally DataGryd), Mr. Brown led the content, cable, and data center verticals within Windstream’s Wholesale Business Unit. From 1999 to 2009, he was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at FiberNet Telecom Group, Inc., where he was an integral part in the sale of the company to the Zayo Group. Mr. Brown earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Bob DeSantis is an accomplished executive and entrepreneur who has held senior leadership positions in public and private, competitive and regulated companies within the communications, technology, and energy industries. He has been a leader in acquiring, building and growing businesses and arranging for their initial public offerings and other strategic events. Bob’s expertise spans strategy, operations, finance, corporate law, real estate, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to becoming the CEO of 365 Data Centers, Bob was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Xand, which became the leading, privately owned, data center, managed services and cloud services operator in the Northeast prior to its sale to Tierpoint. His previous technology and communications experience includes serving as President and COO of cloud operator Flexisphere, CFO of DSL.net, a nationwide internet service provider, CFO of Electric Lightwave, a metro and long haul fiber business, Executive Vice President of core optical switch manufacturer Tellium, and CFO of Frontier Communications (f/k/a Citizens Communications) during that company’s transformation from a diversified utility to one of the nation’s largest telecommunications companies. Bob started his career as a Tax Specialist at KPMG and then as a Tax Attorney with GTE Corp. He broadened his professional expertise by serving as President & COO of the Financial Accounting Foundation, the overseer of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and was named by CPA Magazine as one of the top 100 most influential practitioners. Bob holds both BSE and MS degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) and a Juris Doctorate degree from Boston College Law School. He is a Certified Public Accountant and member of the Bars of several state and federal courts.

Phillip Koblence is a strategic executive and thought leader in the data center and network space. He co-founded NYI (www.nyi.net) in 1996 and has successfully navigated through an ever-shifting infrastructure landscape, growing the company from a single data center in Lower Manhattan to a robust network with executional capabilities in key national and international markets. His leadership, focus on customer experience, and ability to cut through complexity and hype, has positioned NYI as an industry leader in high-touch infrastructure solutions.

Phillip is also CEO of Critical Ventures, a consulting agency offering a range of services to help clients, owners and investors optimize the value of critical infrastructure assets. Phillip sits on the DE-CIX North America Advisory Board as well as on the Board of OIX (formerly Open-IX). Phillip is Co-Founder of the Nomad Futurist Foundation and Podcast, designed to demystify the world of critical infrastructure and inspire younger generations to join the industry. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been profiled by Data Center Knowledge, TheWHIR, MSPMentor, and NJ BIZ. He has an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Moerdler is chair of the Haynes Boone Data Center and Digital Infrastructure Practice and a real estate partner in the New York office. He has more than 40 years’ experience in general commercial real estate law. Jeff’s real estate practice includes acquisitions, sales, development, leasing, and borrower’s side financing. Jeff also has a particular focus on real estate challenges facing communications, technology and energy companies, and represents property owners and telecom companies in telecom real estate matters, particularly in data center development, acquisitions, sales, leases, colocation agreements and service level agreements. His clients include both large national companies and smaller, local clients, and includes representation of landlords and tenants in all types of leases; counseling owners and developers in the acquisition, sale, joint venture, development, and renovation of property as well as sale-leaseback transactions; advising lenders and borrowers in commercial loans; and the representation of all parties in real estate litigation. He is actively involved in settling real estate, partnership, and inter-family disputes. He also represents many not-for-profit entities and is active in health care, senior living, and educational real estate.

During the past 35 years, Jeff has developed considerable experience in the intersection of real estate with communications, technology, and energy issues. He has extensive experience representing landlords, tenants, developers, and communications service providers in the leasing, purchase, sale, and financing of data centers, colocation facilities, radio and television broadcast antennas, distributed and in-building wireless systems, rooftop antennas, and fiber-optic transactions as well as the wiring of buildings for broadband communications access. Jeff has also negotiated thousands of data center leases, master services agreements, colocation agreements and service level agreements, rooftop and cellular antenna leases, inside wiring agreements, and antenna tower 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, battery storage facilities, and bulk power purchases.

Jeff is a frequent speaker on real estate, data center, and telecom topics around the country. He is Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and on the faculty of the Advanced Commercial Leasing Institute. He regularly speaks as a panelist at data center, digital infrastructure and real estate conference around the United States. In addition, he is regularly quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bisnow, Commercial Property News, Real Estate Weekly, and other publications. He co-authored the first treatise chapter on telecom real law for Powell on Real Property in 1999.

Jeff has previously served in numerous governmental positions, including as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a member of the New York State Banking Board, a member of the New York State Financial Control Board, a member of the Departmental Disciplinary Committee of the Appellate Division of the First Department of the New York State Supreme Court, 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, Jeff 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 President of his local chapter, as well as having served for 8 years on the Board of Trustees of the umbrella organization which is the largest volunteer ambulance service in the United States.

Joe Suppers is the founder and president of NodeCom, Inc., a Princeton, NJ based company specializing in the data center industry helping clients with network deployments, site acquisitions, dispositions and identifying new market opportunities. NodeCom also works on special projects to reduce data center property taxes and assessments, sale-leaseback arrangements and integrating renewable energy into mission critical facilities. In addition, NodeCom assists Economic Development organizations to attract data centers to their cities and rolling out rural community broadband networks at the edge across the US. In 1995, Joe was a data center pioneer in founding NodeCom after holding corporate real estate positions where he was responsible for the real estate holdings for DuPont, General Electric Company, GE Capital and HSBC Bank. NodeCom's first projects were with Internet Service Providers, including AOL, Prodigy and CompuServe deploying communication "nodes" across the U.S. when dial-up was the only way to connect to the Internet and later data centers and switch sites for Inflow, Intermedia, Level3, MCI WorldCom, 360 Networks and others.

Daniel English is the President and Co-Founder of Legacy Investing, an investment firm focused on technology impacted real estate. Legacy has completed >$3B in transactions across 19M SF in data centers, e-commerce industrial assets, and life science buildings. Prior to co-founding Legacy Investing, Daniel was a tech start-up executive with leadership roles across M&A, corporate development, strategy, and product management. Daniel studied engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and Economics and Finance at Emory University.

Rich has spent over 25 years of his professional career managing the maintenance, operations, construction and engineering of critical facilities and data centers. Most recently, as Executive Director for Global Data Centers & Engineering for JLL, Rich leads the Data Center & America’s Engineering Division with primary focus on operational delivery, risk mitigation, reliability and compliance at client’s most critical portfolios. In addition, he is responsible for developing creative and innovative strategies to enhance overall operations and provide successful client outcomes. Rich is also responsible for overall client satisfaction and business/operational strategy.

Sudhir Kalra serves as Compass’ EVP of Global Operations. Prior to joining Compass, Mr. Kalra served as Executive Director, Global Head of Enterprise Data Centers for Morgan Stanley. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Sudhir was Director, Corporate Real Estate and Services – Global Head of Engineering and Critical Systems at Deutsche Bank where he was responsible for mission-critical support of a real estate portfolio comprised of over 30 million square feet. Mr. Kalra began his career in technical roles at Securities Industry Automation Corporation supporting mission-critical operations for the NYSE and American Stock Exchange. Sudhir holds a BEEE from City University of NY and an MSEE from NYU-Poly University.

Sean Corcoran is a Regional Sales Manager for STULZ USA, a manufacturer that is dedicated to

providing innovative solutions to mission critical environments. Sean joined STULZ in

November 2015, managing our indirect rep organizations throughout the United States and

actively promoting energy efficient solutions within our industries. As an 18+ year veteran in

the Data Center industry, Sean has spent the past decade focusing primarily on mission critical

containment and cooling applications. He holds a Bachelors Degree of Business Administration

and Economics from the State University of New York and is a member of AFCOM and 7X24.

Joe is a degreed Mechanical Engineer and the CoreSite Vice President of Data Center Field Operations with over 12 years of experience in the Data Center and mission critical operations industry. He was at one time a CoreSite customer and has been with the company for 3 years previously serving as the Sr. Director of Data Center Operations in the NY, BO, and MI Markets.

Frank McCann is a 30 year veteran of Verizon and Verizon Wireless, focusing on data center design, retrofits and greenfield builds. He has held several leadership roles within Verizon, most recently leading the Potomac Region’s Wireline Network Construction team. Frank also recently lead the Global Wireline Standards team, which encompassed all of Verizon Wireline’s network facilities worldwide.

Outside of his day job, Frank is on the Executive Board for Monmouth Council of Scouting America as well as Assistant Scoutmaster for his son’s troop. He lives at the beautiful Jersey Shore.

Luke Boyea has worked for Schneider Electric in the data center industry for fifteen years. During his tenure at Schneider, he has worked closely with Data Center end-users, engineers, contractors, and partners to deliver building management technology solutions for some of the largest data center providers globally. In his current role, Luke is the commercial director for a staff that focuses solely on the cloud and service provider vertical market.

Luke is a graduate of Texas A&M with a bachelor’s of Industrial Distribution. He lives with his wife and two children in Dallas, Texas.

Tony Grayson is the General Manager of Compass Quantum and is known as a cloud and datacenter leader throughout the industry. He regularly speaks and writes on topics ranging from sustainability to energy to datacenters. Before joining Compass, Tony was an SVP at Oracle, responsible for their cloud physical infrastructure. Before Oracle, Mr. Grayson held senior positions with AWS and Facebook. Before embarking on his datacenter career, Tony served for 20 years in the United States Navy in multiple places, including Commanding Officer of USS PROVIDENCE (SSN-719). He is a winner of the prestigious VADM James Stockdale Award for inspirational leadership.

Eli D. Scher is the founder of New Continuum Holdings Corporation, and serves as its Chairman and CEO. Mr. Scher is also the co-founder of United Internet Exchange, LLC and serves as its CEO. He is an entrepreneur with a broad array of investing and operating experience.

Prior to New Continuum, he worked as an analyst at prominent New York hedge funds where he analyzed corporate securities. Previously, Mr. Scher co-founded and served as CEO of GSME Capital Partners, a private, early stage investment partnership, and GSME Acquisition Partners I, a publicly traded acquisition vehicle.

Additionally, he was Chief Financial Officer and director of MCG Group a Shanghai-based LED-advertising company, and was the co-founder, President and CFO of Fundamental Films.

He currently serves as on the board of directors of HMMI, a specialized manufacturer of extremely large and complex steel components.

Eli serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Open-IX Association and previously served as the Chairman of the Data Center Committee.

Mr. Scher received his AB from Princeton University.

Amira Youssef has two decades of experience spanning product marketing, program management, voice of the customer and developer advocacy. She is currently a Principal Program Manager Lead in Microsoft Azure Light Edge Devices Team, leading the evangelism, enablement and engagement at scale efforts for Edge AI: Azure Percept.

Pete is the founder of the PTS companies specializing in Data Center IT and Workplace solutions. For more than 22 year, Pete has been guiding any-scale data center development, commercial/industrial construction and managed IT/managed hosting projects.

His knowledge is a unique blend IT, data center facilities and workplace technologies. He is, in fact, an Accredited Data Center Tiers Designer (ATD) and has been involved in the development of millions of square feet of data center and enterprise space.

Pete is immersed in the evolving hybrid-enterprise - balancing on-site data centers and technology, with colocation, and cloud. Further, he is at the forefront of the evolving edge data center market.

Beyond the data center industry, Pete is well-versed and is an avid investor in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. He has and been involved with multiple startups in these burgeoning technology sectors.

Pete is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and is founder and president and/or corporate officer of a number of corporations serving the data center and enterprise industries including:

In 2013, Pete Sacco was selected as a finalist in Ernst & Young's New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year.

Tate Cantrell has been responsible for the technical direction of Verne Global since the company was founded. Mr Cantrell oversees all aspects of design and construction, and is responsible for operational and security strategies. A seasoned industry speaker, Mr Cantrell is an expert in high-density data center environments and works hand-in-hand with customers to ensure that their specialist technical needs are met. Mr Cantrell transitioned from data center engineering to data center development and operations at Dupont Fabros Technology in 2003, where he played a pivotal role setting up the company’s wholesale data center business model, the first of its kind in the industry.

Working at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and the built environment, JoAnn is a life-long entrepreneur driven by curiosity, creativity, and the desire to do well by doing good. Over the last 20 years, JoAnn has grown four profitable businesses and developed dozens of programs and products for sustainability in the built world. Whether working with small startups or established brands including Pfizer, Dell, Lockheed Martin and Xerox, she uses design thinking to inspire teams of analysts, designers, engineers, and executives to see beyond the familiar and deliver on ambitious strategies. Now at Microsoft, JoAnn is leading an innovation team to reimagine the relationship between technology, people, and planet.

Peter Gross is a technology and energy internationally recognized expert whose career spans over three decades. He is presently the Managing Partner of PMG Associates a consulting and advisory firm. In addition, he sits on several boards of directors and boards of advisors for public, private and not-for- profit companies. Until recently, he was the VP of Mission Critical Systems at Bloom Energy, the premier supplier of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell systems.

Before his Bloom stint, Peter Gross was Vice President and Managing Partner of HP Global Technology Consulting at Hewlett Packard. Prior to HP, he was the co-founder and CEO at EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Inc., a consulting company specialized in strategic technology planning, design and operations support for large-scale data centers. In this position, he has played a pivotal role in the rapid growth of EYP MCF’s business since its founding in 1997, leading to its acquisition by HP in 2008.

Peter is recognized as a thought leader in the mission-critical digital infrastructure domain, has published numerous technical papers in the field, authored several patents and is a frequent speaker at international events. His focus centers on mission-critical facilities, high-reliability design, power quality, energy, and sustainability.

Peter is the recipient of 2010 Data Center Dynamics "Outstanding Contribution to the Industry" award, is a Senior IEEE Member and was one of the contributors to IEEE Standard 3006.7-2013, “Recommended Practice for determining the reliability of 7x24 Power Systems in industrial and commercial facilities”. He also received the 2020 award for Outstanding Contribution to the Digital Infrastructure Community and was inducted in the Infrastructure Masons Hall of Fame.

Craig Pennington is CTO of Montera Infrastructure.

Previously he was Oracle’s Vice President of Data Center Engineering for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). In his role, he was responsible for the specifications and designs for datacenter infrastructure supporting OCI’s services in over 150 locations worldwide. His teams drove innovation, lead the rapid deployment of new regions, advance OCI’s sustainability stance.

Prior to joining Oracle, Craig was Vice President of Design for Equinix, where he delivered improved quality and cost improvement for the company’s global portfolio of datacenters. He was also the engineering lead for support of Equinix’s sustainability goals and accelerated innovation in datacenter design, construction and management.

Craig joined Equinix from NTT where he worked for 10 years in the European Managed Services business, eventually as VP of Operations overseeing the design, implementation and support of a wide range of customers and accreditation programs.

Nabeel Mahmood is a Technologist, Futurist and a Keynote Speaker. His career is driven by one question – what’s next? He is passionate about the power of technology to deliver competitive and transformational change and the need to develop digital leadership that will create the enterprise of the future. He believes strongly in simplification, with a purpose. Nabeel brings 18 plus years of experience leading large-scale global technology organizations through seasons of explosive growth via M&A, global expansion, implementing new business models and technology innovation. His expertise includes leading organizations through transformation changes, connecting IT to the needs of the business, technology innovation, Big Data, Cloud, ERP, IoT, Mobility and Data Centers. He brings a unique blend of experiences spanning the entire breadth of technology from Grid to Chip. At, heart he’s a true technologist and futurist, he is a proven strategist, winsome communicator and leader with extraordinary vision and operational expertise within very large, complex organizations. Nabeel is a strategic CIO identifying opportunities that are being underpinned by emerging technologies. He serves on multiple boards and is an advisor to CIOs and CEO across a number of industries.

Ms. Pine is currently VP of Sales & Business Development at EdgeConneX, where they’ve created, defined and are innovating at the Edge, infrastructure solutions via her customers’ demands. At EdgeConnex, Ms. Pine provides her clients with purpose-built, edge-of-network facilities that enable the fastest delivery of bandwidth intensive, latency sensitive content and applications to the end user. Ms. Pine has over 20 years of experience that began in the wireless space, but has peaked in the datacenter industry for the better part of this time. While this space changed rapidly, her agility to adapt to many of these changes kept her front and center. She has been integral to some of the most complex projects, lead and mentored her teams to learn and succeed along with her during her career, which truly exhibits her passion for helping others achieve their goals. Ms. Pine has been invited to assist and lead conversations of how to solve customer problems, issues, and needs- but to also follow-through and get it done for them. Over the course of her career, Elsa has provided best-in-class consultative sales to the top Media and Cloud ecosystem customers.Prior to EdgeConneX, Elsa has built a professional network and lead teams at CoreSite, Equinix and AT&T to achieve outstanding results through her tenure. Elsa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Western Connecticut State University. She resides in central New Jersey with her husband, and 3 children. When she’s not cheering her kids on sidelines, you can usually catch her doing some SUP Yoga by the shore.