Shawn Mills is a founding member of Green House Data and a technology entrepreneur. Under his leadership, Green House Data has undergone consistent expansion, growing from a single location to 9 cloud hosting, colocation, and hybrid IT data centers across the US. Shawn has spoken at industry events including Data Center World, the National Center for Super Computing Applications, Cloud Computing Expo, and Datacenter Dynamics, and been recognized by publications including Wired, Fortune, and Hemispheres. When he is not at Green House Data, Shawn is either in the Rockies with his family or with his surfboard searching for waves.

David Dunn is COO of H5 Data Centers. Mr. Dunn has nearly 15 years of experience managing significant growth and delivering outsized returns on investment in the Internet infrastructure space. Mr. Dunn most recently served as vice president at the Zayo Group where he was responsible for managing the wavelength and mobile infrastructure business units. Prior to Zayo, Mr. Dunn was senior vice president at CoreSite where he held leadership roles in mergers & acquisitions, leasing, marketing and strategy. Before joining CoreSite, Mr. Dunn held roles at several private equity firms including The Carlyle Group and J.E. Robert Companies. Mr. Dunn earned a B.S. in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of T5 Data Centers, Pete is responsible for setting the overall strategy of the firm, maintaining client relationships, capital management, and creating and executing the firm’s vision for growth. Pete has more than 20 years of experience in the data center sector ranging from development, securing debt and equity capital, to tenant representation including site selection and incentives. Pete’s understanding of end-user needs has enabled T5 Data Centers to reduce project cycle-time and cost, which leads to successful relationships, and repeat business.

Prior to T5 Data Centers, Pete served as Executive Vice President at The Staubach Company where he started, managed, and lead the National Contact & Data Center Practice for 13 of his 14 years at the firm and was recognized on a regular basis for his many achievements. Before Staubach, Pete held various sales positions with Trammell Crow, MCI, and 3M Company.

Pete received a B.S. in Finance from the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech.

Tony Pichetto is Director of Operations and Technology for Vericon, a global leader in background screening, where he is responsible for product innovation, business intelligence, and cloud solutions. Prior to joining Vericon, he co-founded K-Star, Inc., a cloud hosting provider specializing in desktop virtualization. Tony earned his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Southern Polytechnic State University. In his spare time, Tony enjoys coaching youth sports and serves on the Football Board for Dacula Athletic Association.

Jeff Burges is the President & Founder of DataSite; a wholesale data center space and network services provider. DataSite provides mission critical data center facility environments coupled with best-in-class facility operations. The company’s data center services solve complex real estate challenges for technology intensive users in the corporate enterprise, managed services and content delivery networks industries and beyond. DataSite currently owns and operates world-class U.S. based facilities in Orlando, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; and Boise, Idaho.

Mr. Burges has owned and managed over 21 million square feet of commercial real estate, valued at over $2.5 billion. These portfolios consisted of data centers, telecom hotels, bio-technology labs as well as traditional office and industrial properties throughout the United States. Through his 32 year career in commercial real estate, Mr. Burges has gained a deep understanding of the property and critical infrastructure needs of the most discriminating technology companies, while simultaneously honing his real estate skill set. This combination enables DataSite to provide its clients with broad and uniquely valuable data center solutions.

In 2003, Mr. Burges founded BURGES property + company with a specific strategy to purchase empty, undervalued and misunderstood data center properties as property investments. In 2008, Mr. Burges launched DataSite as the logical next step in providing the worldwide IT community best-in-class data center space by the kilowatt.

Giving back to the industry and community is very important to Mr. Burges. Thus, Mr. Burges has served as an Officer on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Chapter of NAIOP; the Commercial Real Estate Association. He is a regular speaker and mentor to students and faculty at UCSD, San Diego State University and the University of San Diego. Mr. Burges, his wife and children are avid supporters of the MARSOC Foundation (Marine Special Operations Command) at Camp Pendleton, California. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management Consulting.

Ms. Haney is a co-founder and currently serves as Executive VP and General Counsel for Fogo Data

Centers. Prior to joining Fogo Data Centers, Ms. Haney was a partner in a regional law firm, Tisinger

Vance, P.C., practicing for fifteen years as a commercial attorney in the areas of Estate Planning and

Probate, Real Estate and General Commercial law.  Ms. Haney joined Fogo Data Centers as a start-up

company, and has advised the Company through formation; facility acquisitions, construction,

expansions and leases; financing and equity participations, and facility certifications and compliance, in

addition to general corporate matters.

Ms. Haney is a proud alumnus of the University of West Georgia (Political Science) and holds a Juris

Doctorate (cum laude) from Walter F. George School of Law, Mercer University. Since her return to the

West Georgia area in 1993, Ms. Haney has played an active role in our community. She is a past

Chairman of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, and served on the Board of Carroll Tomorrow

and the Community Foundation of West Georgia. Ms. Haney currently serves as a Board Member for

one our community’s newest non-profits, Circles of West Georgia and is an active board member and

serves on the Executive Committee of our own University of West Georgia Board of Trustees. Ms.

Haney is an active member of Midway Church here in West Georgia and is a charter member of the

Carrollton Dawnbreakers Rotary Club. Ms. Haney is married to Richard Haney, Jr. and is mom to three

teenagers, Kyle, Rachel and Rebekah.

Jason C. Reed brings more than 20 years of real estate experience in complex global real estate transactions, law and management to Carter Validus. As Chief Acquisitions Officer and Senior Vice President, Data Center Investment Management, Mr. Reed provides the strategic vision to turn business goals into actionable plans with appropriate risk management. As acting Principal of Longview Real Estate Advisors, a full service advisory firm to the data center and telecommunications industry with a focus on mission critical real estate assets, he was responsible for the firm’s acquisitions, leasing and management strategy. Formerly the Senior Vice President, Global Real Estate at Equinix, Inc., Mr. Reed was accountable directly to the Chief Development Officer and Real Estate Committee of the Board of Directors for the allocation and investment of $2 billion annually across 22 countries and 44 metropolitan areas. Notably while at Equinix, Mr. Reed successfully implemented a global real estate administration program with coordination across several stakeholder groups including the regional Presidents, Tax, SEC accounting and Audit.

Prior to Equinix, Mr. Reed served in various roles at Level 3 Communications, most recently as Vice President, Global Real Estate and Facilities, where he was responsible for the strategic planning, investment and management of 23 million square feet of global real estate consisting of over 10,000 properties across North America, EMEA, and Latin America.

Mr. Reed received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, followed by earning his Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in Taxation at the University of Denver.

Raul Martynek joined DataBank in June of 2017 as the Chief Executive Officer. In this role, he provides overall strategic direction of the company and its operations. Raul is a 25+ year veteran in the telecom and Internet Infrastructure sector. He most recently served as a Senior Advisor for Digital Bridge Holdings LLC. Prior to Digital Bridge, he served as Chief Executive Officer for New Jersey-based data center and managed services operator Net Access, LLC. Net Access was acquired in November 2015 by Denver-based data center operator Cologix. Prior to Net Access, he was the CEO of Voxel dot Net, Inc., a global managed hosting and cloud company, which was acquired by Internap Network Services Corp. in early 2012. Mr. Martynek also served as the Chief Restructuring Officer of Smart Telecom, a Dublin, Ireland-based fiber carrier which was acquired by Digiweb in 2009. Before that he evaluated investment opportunities in the telecommunications and Internet sector as a Senior Advisor at Plainfield Asset Management, a $4B hedge fund. Prior to Plainfield, Mr. Martynek spent 13 years with telecom and Internet provider InfoHighway Communications Corp; first as a Chief Operating Officer of Eureka Networks and then as President and Chief Executive Officer of InfoHighway. InfoHighway was acquired by Broadview Networks in 2007. Mr. Martynek earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Binghamton University and received a Master Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Phil ​Horstmann founded Ascent in 1998. He wanted to align and integrate best-in-class critical systems infrastructure, facilities engineering, purpose built construction, architectural acumen and best practices operations protocols. Doing so would allow for the improvement of client operations in data center and other critical systems environments. Today, under his leadership, Ascent is a turnkey critical systems infrastructure solutions provider. The company provides a broad range of expertise, uniquely spanning data center planning, engineering, construction, management, real estate development and operations outsourcing.

Nancy Novak, Compass Datacenters’ Chief Innovation Officer, has over 25 years of construction experience and has overseen the delivery of over $3.5 billion in projects during that time. Prior to joining Compass, Nancy was the National Vice President of Operations for Balfour Beatty Construction which she joined after serving in a variety of executive positions for Hensel Phelps Construction Company. Ms. Novak is a member of the iMason’s advisory council and is actively involved in a number of organizations dedicated to the advancement of woman in business including Above the Glass Ceiling (AGC) who are working with Fortune 500 companies to aid in the advancement of women in STEM, Women in Government Relations (WGE), Women Construction Owners and Executives (WCOE), The World Trade Center Initiative, Fortune Media’s Most Powerful Women and the National Women’s Party. Nancy is a frequent speaker on the topic and has participated in the White House Womens and Diversity in STEM forums. Nancy holds a degree in Construction Engineering and Management from San Diego State University.

An accomplished executive, Lindsey brings together expertise in project development for both data centers and renewable energy. Lindsey led the advancement of several hundred megawatts of data center pipelines across the US and Europe, and her renewable energy development experience extends to the US, Canada and parts of South America.

Prior to joining CleanArc, Lindsey served as Vice President of Project Development at CyrusOne, a leading global data center developer and operator specializing in delivering state-of-the-art digital infrastructure solutions across the globe. At CyrusOne, she led the global Project Development team and was responsible for the strategy, execution, and delivery of the company’s organic data center development projects. Prior to this role, Lindsey served as CyrusOne’s Senior Corporate Counsel of Real Estate & Construction, working alongside the company’s U.S. and global site selection and construction teams in all aspects of site selection and development. Previously, Lindsey served as Senior Attorney for the Americas division of RES Group, the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, where she represented the organization in various matters related to the development and construction of utility scale renewable energy projects. Lindsey began her career as an attorney in private practice focused on commercial and industrial real estate.

Lindsey holds an AB in English from Duke University, a JD from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology.

Mr. Rhodes came to state government in January 2011 from Paladin Investments, a private investment company he established and has served as managing partner since 2009. Prior to starting his own firm, he worked for Fulton Paper Company for 27 years, serving most recently as executive vice president.

Previously, Mr. Rhodes held various positions within the company, including vice president of operations and chief information officer/vice president for information technology. He began his career with the company in its procurement area.

Governor Nathan Deal named Mr. Rhodes to lead the state’s public/private partnership IT transformation and consolidation effort. The initiative has strengthened security, modernized infrastructure and networks, improved reliability and increased transparency in the state’s IT enterprise. Building on its successes, the state is now evolving its service delivery model to enable state agencies to more easily benefit from changes in the IT marketplace. Mr. Rhodes and his team promote an enterprise approach to technology by establishing statewide policies, standards and guidelines based on industry best practices and federal requirements.

The state of Georgia’s leadership position in using technology to improve service delivery has been affirmed by the Center for Digital Government, which awarded the state a letter grade of A, the highest ranking possible, in the 2018 Digital States Survey. In addition, Georgia placed first in the nation in the category of Adaptive Leadership and was named among the top five states in the category of Collaboration. Georgia received an A- in both its 2014 and 2016 surveys.

As state CIO, Mr. Rhodes chairs Georgia’s Statewide Cybersecurity Board, created in 2015 by executive order, to assess and strengthen the state’s security posture. He led GTA’s oversight of the construction of the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta. The first of the center’s two adjacent buildings opened in July 2018, and the second building opened in January 2019. Mr. Rhodes has also been responsible for partner coordination at the center, which promotes modernization in cybersecurity technology and workforce development for the public sector and private industry through unique education, training, research and practical applications.

Mr. Rhodes is an active member, past officer and executive committee member of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers. He is a member of the Georgia CIO Leadership Association and received the association’s 2018 CIO of the Year ORBIE Award for the nonprofit/public sector. Mr. Rhodes serves on the Technology Association of Georgia’s Science and Technology Executive Committee and was honored for his leadership by the association in October 2015. In addition, Computerworld magazine named Mr. Rhodes a 2016 Premier 100 Technology Leader in recognition of his technology leadership and innovative approaches to business challenges. Mr. Rhodes was selected by Government Technology as one of the nation’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for 2016 for his accomplishments using technology to improve government operations and help the public sector serve citizens more effectively.

Mr. Rhodes is a graduate of Darton State College and Georgia Southwestern University and holds a degree in computer information systems. He also earned a master of business administration from the University of Phoenix.

Kirk Talbott is the CIO of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), the 9th largest public transportation system in the US and North America operating bus, rail and paratransit service for more than 430,000 passenger trips every weekday.

Kirk has over a decade of experience serving as CIO including work for the City of Atlanta, for Lake County Illinois, for the Public Transit Agency serving central Texas region surrounding metropolitan Austin and for the Public Transit Agency for the northern half of San Diego County.

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.

Jeff Uphues is responsible for DC BLOX’s business strategy, mission, and goals guiding the company’s vision of designing, building and operating a network of innovative data centers that bring best-in-class business services to the Edge.

A tireless tech-savvy executive, strategist and cloud services entrepreneur, Jeff has held C-suite leadership positions in organizations ranging in size from Fortune 50 companies to start-ups including Liquid Web, Cbeyond and Bandwidth.com. He is an active board member for several privately held technology software companies and is co-chair of the New Venture Competition for the Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta.

Jeff is a graduate of Harvard Business School and completed undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. He lives in Alpharetta, GA with his wife and two girls (who are known as the Three Texas Chix) where he serves as the president of the Jr. Raiders Girls Lacrosse Board.

Jennifer Curry leads INAP’s global cloud services group. She is responsible for the architecture, infrastructure engineering and technical support of the company’s cloud and hosting solutions, including bare metal, private cloud, managed hosting, third-party managed cloud and business continuity.

A tech thought leader committed to INAP’s mission of empowering IT transformations, Ms. Curry has 18 years of experience in the industry, with eight years leading teams in the hosting and cloud space. She most recently served as INAP’s vice president of hosting and managed services.

Prior to INAP, Ms. Curry held several senior positions in the data center and telecommunications industries. She served as vice president of cloud at Zayo Group, vice president of systems engineering, implementations and IT at Latisys, and senior manager of software at Level 3 communications.

Ms. Curry holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame.

Sam Brown joined the Serverfarm team in 2011 as the Vice President of Engineering & Construction. Managing the engineering and construction teams, Brown is responsible for managing all aspects of data center construction and critical infrastructure projects from initial facility acquisition to design, budgeting, bidding, building, commissioning, and final turnover to the customer. Since joining the company, he has led projects ranging in scale from small power and cooling infrastructure upgrades to complex data center developments.

Prior to joining Serverfarm, Brown worked for five years as a mechanical project engineer for Ascent, LLC. Brown is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Tyler Alexander is a Principal of RedBird Capital Partners, where he focuses on investment opportunities in the Communications sector.

In his current role at RedBird, Tyler is actively involved with the firm’s investments in N3, Compass Datacenters, TierPoint, and Next Tier HD and he currently sits on the boards of N3, Next Tier HD and Compass Datacenters.

In addition to his investment responsibilities, Tyler leads the firm’s Management Compensation Team, which designs and implements competitive executive compensation packages that create strong alignment, drive performance and are in accordance with best practices.

Prior to joining RedBird in 2013, Tyler was an Associate at MidOcean Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, where he focused on investment opportunities in growth-oriented consumer businesses. Prior to MidOcean, Tyler began his career at Rothschild & Co. in the firm’s global advisory restructuring group. At Rothschild, Tyler specialized in special situations, recapitalizations, and in-court and out-of-court restructuring transactions during a period which included the Financial Crisis.

Tyler received a B.A. in History, with distinction, from the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar.

As Chief Real Estate Officer, Mario Calderone is responsible for all aspects of Serverfarm’s commercial real estate portfolio, including acquisitions, leasing, management, financing and disposition. A seasoned real estate industry professional, Calderone has an established track record of successful value creation across a broad range of investment assets.

Prior to joining Serverfarm, Calderone founded and operated Alpine Investment Company, a private investment company that he operated for more than 15 years. During this period, he was responsible for over $500 million of successful investment or capitalization of commercial assets involving entities such as General Electric, Global Exchange, Royal Ahold, ATT Corporation, and Verizon. Calderone also spent several years as Asset Management Vice President for a regional development firm with an office and industrial portfolio totaling more than 2 million square feet. During his tenure, the company successfully built and leased over 700,000 square feet of commercial space. Calderone started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Calderone received a Master’s Degree in Corporate Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Temple University.

Justin Kline is Vice President of Portfolio Development at Legacy Investing, where he leads the efforts to maximize the value of Legacy’s portfolio through acquisitions, leasing, dispositions, refinancing and related transactional projects.

Justin started in real estate at the Washington, D.C. office of Colliers International Valuation & Advisory Services where he focused on property valuation and consulting along the eastern seaboard. More recently, he specialized in Investment Sales brokerage in Southwestern Pennsylvania at both Colliers International and JLL. Justin’s background in valuation and investment sales has created a well-rounded balance of technical ability and deal management that he is able to utilize to drive value for Legacy’s investors.

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.

In 2013, David co-founded Next Tier HD, a boutique real estate private equity firm. Next Tier HD operates an investment, development and advisory platform with a mission critical, data center focus. Mr. Spiewak spends his time on Next Tier’s Investment business and its global Data Center consulting and brokerage arm (DJS Group).

NextTier HD has developed and acquired over 3,000,000 sf of data centers and mixed-use assets since its 2013 inception, and over 6,000,000 sf of assets across the United States, since its founding partners started working together in 2000.

Currently Next Tier HD has ownership in assets in North Carolina, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Virginia and is a partner and developer of Databank’s Georgia Tech HPCC facility in Atlanta, GA.

David has specialized in the Mission Critical arena since 1997 having spent his career on both the IT and real estate sides of the house.

Prior to Next Tier HD, David was a Principal and Executive Vice President of a global IT consulting firm, was a partner and Senior Vice President of T-Rex Capital, where he co-headed the acquisitions and leasing activities of the company. Prior to T-Rex, Mr. Spiewak was a Vice President of Tishman Real Estate, a founder of Plymouth Partners and a broker at Grubb & Ellis.

Ryan Sullivan is an Executive Vice President and National Data Center Group Leader with Lincoln Property Company, overseeing Data Center Investments and Capital Markets. Ryan is responsible for broadening the firm’s data center offering, by partnering with Lincoln’s national commercial and industrial platforms to identify and execute on data center opportunities across the country, including new investments, development, leasing and third-party services for institutional investors, data center operators and end users. He also partners with Lincoln’s Investment Management team to source investment capital for data center opportunities.

Ryan has extensive data center investment, development and leasing experience and joins Lincoln from GI Partners, where he led the firm’s real estate development activities, as Director of Investments and Head of Development. Prior to joining GI Partners, Ryan led investment and portfolio management at Landmark Dividend’s Digital Infrastructure Division, prior to its acquisition by Digital Bridge. From 2015 to 2020, Mr. Sullivan oversaw all investment, leasing and development activities for Lincoln’s Data Center business, formerly known as Lincoln Rackhouse. With his leadership and extensive mission critical investment and development experience, he helped build a respectable national data center operating platform of 16 datacenters across 14 markets, totaling over 3 million sq. ft. and 100 MWs of data center capacity. Earlier, he served in development, leasing and portfolio management roles at Digital Realty. Over his 18+ year data center career, Ryan has managed data center and tech/life science portfolios valued at over $7.5 billion in AUM and pursued data center projects in most U.S. and many international markets.

Miles Loo Jr., CRE, FRICS, joined Newmark Valuation & Advisory in 2017 in the Downtown Los Angeles office, where he serves as Vice Chairman and the Global Lead for Newmark Valuation & Advisory’s Data Centers & Life Science group. Miles is well recognized as the industry’s leading appraiser of data center properties. His experience includes advising private equity funds, institutional investors, large pension funds, Fortune 500 companies, cloud companies and Global IT conglomerates on investments in all types of data centers, including mission critical, disaster recovery data centers, colocation facilities, carrier hotels, internet gateways and life science properties. These assignments have involved data centers owned and/or operated by Fortune 500 companies across numerous industries as well as Uptime Institute Site Certified Tier III and Tier IV facilities; U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Platinum, Gold and Silver buildings; and state and federal disaster recovery data centers. Miles has led valuations of large individual and portfolio valuations spanning multiple countries across six continents (NA, EMEA, APAC, LATAM and African regions) and has consulted on a number of the world’s largest data centers.

Ed has been involved with mission critical facilities since 1988. Over the

years, he has fulfilled many roles including acting as the Structural

Engineer, Project Manager and Project Executive for the implementation of

these facilities in multiples industries. These include large scale enterprise

facilities, colocation facilities, cable head-ends, central offices and wireless

switch facilities. Prior to joining Bennett & Pless, Ed founded a full-service

engineering firm that specialized in the design and construction

management of mission critical facilities. It remains a highly regarded firm

today. As a result, Ed intimately understands the architectural, structural,

mechanical, electrical and fire protection requirements for these facilities.

Ed continues to actively apply his expertise at Bennett & Pless as the

Project Executive on key mission critical facility projects.

Large International Colo Provider, Northern CA

Project Executive for the structural design of a new three story, 750,000

square foot data center for this colocation provider. The structural design

includes addressing challenging soils in a high seismic area with an

existing basement.

Wholesale Data Center Provider, Various Cities

Ed is the Project Executive for the structural design of a prototype facility

that is currently about to be deployed in multiple locations across the

country. He has applied his years of experience to influence the structural

design of this 250,000 square foot, 2-story data center.

Fluence, Energy Storage Facility, Los Angeles, CA

Bennett & Pless was selected by this “industry leader” in energy storage to

act as the Project Manager and Structural Engineer of Record for the

execution of their mission critical facilities. The first building being

designed is the world’s largest energy storage facility, 100 MW, located in

Los Angeles. Bennett & Pless assembled a full service team of highly

respected consultants to design these first-of-a-kind facilities. Ed

facilitated key sessions to establish the needs and design criteria; which

resulted in numerous design innovations for this unique facility.

Verizon Wireless, Multiple Cities, Nationally

For over 8 years as Project Manager and Project Executive, Ed oversaw

the deployment of numerous mission critical facilities across the country.

This included new facilities, conversion of existing buildings, and adds,

moves and changes within the facilities.

As EVP of Construction and Development, Robbie is the leader of T5’s Construction Services division, where he sets the overall vision and business strategy. He holds the general contractors license and/or business license for construction activity across the organization. Robbie holds a degree in Construction Management from Western Carolina University.

Todd Boucher is the Principal at Leading Edge Design Group (LEDG) leading the strategy and design development efforts for complex technology and data center projects in the public and private sectors. Since founding LEDG in 2007, Todd has helped shape how organizations leverage computing and technology systems to deliver services to their users with speed, resiliency, and scale. LEDG provides a comprehensive suite of data center planning, design, and build services with offices in Atlanta, Philadelphia and New England. Mr. Boucher is a Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD) and certified by the United States Department of Energy as a Data Center Certified Energy Practitioner (DCEP). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Management of Information Systems from the University of New Hampshire.

Technologist, Solutions Architect and Business Strategist—Tiwanna Hayes leads with over 20

years of experience in delivering efficiency, reliability, and innovation in the Information

Technology industry.

Most recently, Hayes served several of Georgia's school districts as a consultant providing

thought-leadership, operations management, and technology activations; while helping districts

maximize strategic spend and optimize operational cost and secure.

Prior to her consultancy, Hayes was tapped to lead the Atlanta Public School District (APS) as

the Deputy Chief Information Officer. In this role, Hayes stabilized and restructured the district’s

IT operations by focusing on innovation and citizen-centered services, increasing the agencies’

overall efficiency and equity through updates and business process improvements. Under her

leadership APS experienced exponential improvements in graduation rates and overall digital

literacy for students, parents, and teachers.

With a comprehensive understanding of IT services, Hayes previously served as an Information

Security Officer for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics where she led the Information Security

Compliance and Governance group. In this role she directed information and data integrity for

all IT functions, helping the company create its first Information Security Roadmap and an

Integrated Forensics and Computer Incident Response team.

Hayes’ established track record of technology leadership and digital transformation have been

recognized by both local and national organizations. Hayes was a 2014 recipient of the

prestigious CIO 100 Award as well as the recipient of the STEM Women of Color for IT

Leadership Award and the Modern Day Technology Leader, Black Engineer Award.

She was selected as a participant in the 2018 cohort of Leadership DeKalb and serves as a

board members for several community organizations.

With an unwavering dedication to digital literacy for all people, Hayes serves a number of

organizations leading discussions on technology tools for learning and achievement as well as

teaching her strategy for technical decision making that leads to robust information technology

systems for small businesses and corporations alike.

Hayes has made long-lasting contributions to our nation as a former United States Navy Officer.

She holds a master’s degree in Managerial Strategy and Economics from New York Institute of

Technology and a bachelor's degree in Operations Management from Georgia State University.

Shawn Novak is the Executive Vice President of Strategic Solutions, an executive leadership role on Switch’s National Sales team. Shawn will be key in helping our valued customers and partners define their hyperscale needs and multi-cloud requirements. Shawn’s role will allow him to be one of Switch’s leading digital strategists and most of all, a hyperscale and cloud solutions innovator.

Shawn joins Switch as part of its greater strategic initiative to build a new strategic sales team of senior data center sales specialists to drive the growth of large enterprise clients across Switch’s national campus footprint.

As an expert around cloud, colocation, hyperscale and data center architecture, Shawn assists clients to be more informed on expenditures around their own future roadmap strategies. He develops Rough Order Magnitude (ROM) models that show costs of moving to colocation, hosting, cloud environments and/or building new facilities to upgrading existing facilities.

Prior to joining Switch, Shawn served as a First Vice President within CBRE’s Data Center Solutions team. In that role, Shawn was responsible for leading complex consulting engagements for organizations requiring data center mission critical facilities strategies and solutions.

Shawn lives in suburbs of Chicago, IL with his wife and four children. The entire family is constantly active, participating in numerous sports, Spartan Runs, and lots of other outdoor activities.

Larry K. Williams, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). Williams, A recognized leader in economic development, brings more than 20 years of experience in global branding, international trade and finance, public and industrial policy, and administration and management to one of the largest state technology trade associations in North America.

Peter M. Williams, Director, is Head of Community Strategy & Operations for BlackRock Atlanta. He oversees BlackRock's strategy for community engagement and brand-building efforts across the Metro-Atlanta region. In addition, he is responsible for corporate relations, university engagement and BlackRock’s local social impact efforts.

Prior to joining the Atlanta Innovation Hub build team, he was responsible for site selection and location strategy for BlackRock’s newest innovation hub and was a Business Strategist within BlackRock's software engineering function serving as the chief of staff to the head of software engineering. He was responsible for strategic project management, internal and external communications and firm wide coordination with key partners.

Before joining BlackRock’s technology business, he was responsible for maintaining relationships with financial advisors for the Retirement & Digital Wealth Solutions effort. His responsibilities included business development, project management and relationship management. From 2011-2014 he was a member of the US & Canada Defined Contribution Group, BlackRock’s 401(k) business. Peter was responsible enhancing the client experience through his institutional client servicing efforts. From 2007-2010 he was a member of BlackRock's Global Consultant Relations Group. He was responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with US investment consultants, as well as preparing new business proposals and external communications. He began his career with BlackRock through the Merrill Lynch Investment Managers' Analyst Program in 2006.

Mr. Williams earned a BA degree in Public Policy Studies and a Certificate in Markets and Management Studies from Duke University in 2007.

Tony has over 34 years experience in providing strategic real estate advisory services for corporate users and non-profit institutions. In particular, Tony has worked closely with clients to develop programs with real world, actionable strategies to align their real estate obligations with their ownership, cost, quality and location objectives.

Tony has extensive experience in providing portfolio reviews and analysis, highest and best use studies, occupancy cost benchmarking, merger and acquistion services, development advisory, master planning, site slection, tenant representation, transaction management, financial analysis and ownership structures. His experience involves working across a wide range of asset classes including office, retail, data centers, and headquarters facilities and transaction types including acquisitions, dispositions, build-to-suits and sale-leaseback transactions.

Some of Tony's distinguished list of clients include SunTrust, McKesson, Ernst and Young, Georgia Tech, Siemens, Microsoft, Sprint, Mellon Bank, Equifax, Wellpoint, Darden Restaurants and Woodruff Arts Center.

Shane is the product lead for the Platform and Applications services within Verizon Partner

Solutions portfolio. Products include: IoT, Data Center, Security, Professional Services and Emerging

Services. He is a 12-year wireless, cloud computing, data center and M2M veteran having held sales

management, product development and marketing roles.

Shane also served as an Engineer Company Commander in the United States Army. His service includes

an eleven-month tour conducting route clearance missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom

(Afghanistan). Shane is an Army R.O.T.C alumnus and holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University.

David is an experienced public speaker and data center evangelist with over 25 years in

the IT/Data Center industry. He has held a variety of roles, from leading national product

and solution engineering teams to hosting the QTS Experience podcast.

David is passionate about using technology and data for the greater good. He believes

that data centers can help humanity prosper, nurture our planet, and safeguard a future

for upcoming generations. He is committed to fostering a community that brings

together a diverse range of users, thinkers, and implementers of technology for

enriching conversations, shared laughter, and immersive experiences into the inner

workings of our digitally connected world.

David is a visionary who is eager to leverage the far-reaching implications of our

interconnected digital lives. He is a respected industry professional known for his

Dynamic Leader of choice, who strives to deliver positive transformation, accelerate change and endeavor new ventures through strategic thinking, innovation, influential and agile decision-making abilities in today's rapidly changing digital marketplace.

Jeff Wabik is responsible for DC BLOX’s strategic technology development. Since joining the company, he has managed the deployment and growth of its software-automated, multi-terabit, service delivery networks which underpin DC BLOX’s edge-connected solutions.

For more than 30 years, Jeff has combined imagination, vision, and a deep technical acumen to create next-generation technologies for both start-up and mature organizations. Jeff’s experience includes data center network operations, embedded software development, information security, business development, and creation of L2 switching and L3 routing platforms, including the world’s first multi-Gigabit router. Jeff has held senior technical management positions at Ciena, Ascend Communications, and Lucent Technologies.

Jeff graduated from the University of Minnesota with dual BA degrees in Computer Science and Geology. In his free time, he is a fitness addict, a commercial and instrument rated pilot, an avid snowboarder and plays the drums in rock-n-roll bands.

David C. Meadows II has worked in data center cooling since 1999.  He is currently the Director of Technology with STULZ USA, a manufacturer of precision air conditioning, humidification, and dehumidification products specifically designed for the data center.  Previously David has served as both the Design Engineering Manager and the Applications Engineering Manager at Stulz.  David holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  David is also a graduate of the United States Navy Nuclear Power School.

William Panian is the Data Center Director for PwC based out of Atlanta, GA. He has over 25 years of Data Center experience beginning with 10 years in the design/build of mission critical facilities. William has spent the last 15 years in Data Center Operations leading its vision and strategy at PwC. Additionally focusing on capacity management, energy management, physical security, business continuity/disaster recovery and Major Incident Management. William is an expert in integrating IT/Facilities into one organization, driving out cost and increasing efficiencies in the process. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Michigan Technological University and is a certified energy manager (CEM).

Prior to GIGA, Jake founded DC BLOX as CEO in 2014 to provide comprehensive data center services for the SMB market including colocation and managed services. In 2017 he was made Vice Chairman after pivoting the company to providing expanded availability and network services, then left to found GIGA Data Centers to serve the Enterprise colocation market.

Prior to this, he was CMO for GE Energy Management where he led the global development of strategy and commercialization initiatives and led the creation of GE’s Critical Power business. Before GE, he spent over nine years managing portfolio companies for private equity investors of electrical & electronic manufacturing businesses. He has also held executive leadership roles with Newark Electronics, American Superconductor Corp., and Emerson Electric, in which he led Marketing & Product Management for the Liebert division. He can be reached here.

The son of a contractor, Brian Woessner spent his teenage years working various construction trades alongside his dad. Ever since earning his first paycheck as a plumber for $3 an hour at the age of 14, Brian was inspired by the challenge of construction. He quickly saw the fun in taking a disorganized construction project and delivering something useful and seemingly impossible to the client. The feeling of accomplishment stuck with him throughout his youth and led him to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Construction Management from the University of Florida and later his General Contractors License. Brian is also a LEED Green Associate.

Since joining Duffey Southeast in 2002, Brian has fun every day at work. With the talented group of professionals at the firm, he motivates each project team to build great projects for clients– and not just manage them. To him, being a great contractor means getting out in the field and building the project from the ground up, exceeding the client’s expectations. One of his most memorable projects was a switch gear replacement for AT&T web hosting that had to be completed without any interruption in service. Brian personally worked the night shift alongside the superintendent to complete the project – and he learned a lot in the process. He learned that pulling off the impossible never gets old and that ensuring the success of the next generation of construction professionals is critical to his success as a manager.

As the Manager of Duffey Southeast’s Jacksonville Office, Brian is excited to go to work every day. He wants to make the work of his clients easier by doing what he loves to do – build great projects on-time, within budget and demonstrative of superior quality.

Timothy A. Kiser, Founder of Colo Atl, is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in 35 states. With over 25 years of engineering experience, Mr. Kiser has served as the designer and engineer on over 70 telecommunications facilities. Mr. Kiser designed and constructed the fully-built Colo Atl colocation and Meet Me Room facility in November 2001 to serve as a carrier-neutral colocation and interconnection facility. As Owner, Designer and Engineer at the Colo Atl facility, Mr. Kiser was instrumental in achieving the prestigious SSAE 16 certification, an internationally recognized third-party assurance audit designed for service organizations. Colo Atl achieved the certification after a stringent audit of its internal business processes and IT controls, including physical security, environmental security, logical security, and network security.

A premier industry expert on data centers/colocation, engineering, peering, and Software Defined Networking, Mr. Kiser is a distinguished speaker. Select speaking engagements include the CEO Roundtables at Telecom Exchange (2012 and 2013), FISPA Live (Atlanta), and IMN Forums on Financing, Investing & Real Estate Development for Data Centers.

Mr. Kiser also operates the Georgia Technology Center (GTC) and the Southeast Network Access Point (SNAP), both of which are located in Colo Atl’s Atlanta, Georgia facility at 55 Marietta Street. The GTC is a live lab for network equipment vendors to highlight their optical and electrical hardware and operating systems; and SNAP is a next-generation Internet Exchange (IX) supporting IPv4, IPv6, OpenFlow, and Software Defined Networking (SDN).

A Georgia Institute of Technology graduate, Mr. Kiser holds a degree in Electrical Engineering, and served as an Air Force B52 bomber pilot during Operation Desert Storm. In his spare time, Mr. Kiser enjoys traveling, spending time with close friends and business associates and recreational flying.

Hunter Newby is an American entrepreneur, investor, conservationist and the owner of Newby Ventures. His primary field of interest has been network infrastructure. As Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer and a Director of Telx, he pioneered the carrier-neutral Meet-Me-Room and the development of carrier hotels and data centers in the United States leading to massive value creation and economic development throughout the Country. Since the sale of Telx he has been and continues to be a founder, developer and investor in the creation of multiple network-neutral infrastructure businesses all across North America.

Mr. Newby is a recognized authority in the network-neutral interconnection and data center industry. He has served on multiple company boards, is a published author, public speaker and has been quoted in several publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today. He has also been the recipient of numerous awards including being named to the Global Telecoms Business Top 40 Under 40 in 2010.

Mr. Newby earned a B.S. in Communications from Drexel University.

Kemal Hawa is a corporate partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kemal represents many of the world’s largest private equity firms, infrastructure funds, real estate investors and lenders across a broad range of transactions in the digital infrastructure sector domestically and internationally, including mergers and acquisitions, investments, financing arrangements, joint ventures and development projects.

Kemal counsels clients in complex transactions across the digital infrastructure and telecommunications, media and technology industries. This includes many of the world’s largest data center operators, telecommunications carriers, tower companies, cloud providers, fiber providers, media companies, submarine cable operators, fintech companies, wireless and international carriers, internet service providers, satellite companies, equipment manufacturers and electric utilities.

In addition to M&A and financing transactions, Kemal represents companies in connection with the full spectrum of digital infrastructure transactions globally, including the negotiation of data center leases and colocation agreements, telecommunications master service agreements, licensing deals and other commercial transactions.

Kemal is a frequent author and speaker on digital infrastructure topics and has consistently been recognized as an industry leading attorney in the sector. In 2023, Kemal was named as one of Capacity Media’s “Power 100” – a list of the 100 most influential people in the digital infrastructure sector globally, and was voted “TMT M&A Lawyer of the Year” by an independent panel of judges organized by TMT Finance.

Peter Berry is Senior Vice President of AOD (ACI on Demand) Infrastructure and Cyber Security for ACI

Worldwide, running global data center operations for hosted and Software-as-a-Service payments

products throughout the world.

During his career, Berry has led data center and operations organizations through transformations,

consolidations and acquisitions. He has driven improved availability, reduced costs and increased

efficiency in both large established and smaller start-up organizations. Berry specializes in IT technical

and operational leadership, supporting critical business functions and enabling rapid growth.

Before joining ACI, Berry was Vice President of SaaS Strategy and Operations at NCR Corporation,

providing leadership in support of rapidly growing SaaS offerings across the globe. Prior to that, Berry led

data center and operations teams at VMWare/AirWatch and Liaison Technologies among other

companies, and was an executive advisor for Tatum's technology practice.

Andy Green serves as PRGX, Vice President of Global Infrastructure Support and Operations and leads the development and transformation of a global IT operation that manages SaaS solutions and IT services for Amazon, Kroger, Target, Walmart, Tesco, and other global, retail leaders. He is responsible for the delivery of IT services including Software-as-a-Service, Data Centers, Network

Operations, Cloud, Security, Compliance, and DevOps.

Prior to joining PRGX, Andy was Senior Director of Cloud Infrastructure for PTC where he led global IT operations that managed SaaS solutions and IT services for Coca-Cola Refreshments, Dell, Austal, US Navy and other manufacturing, retail and defense organizations. In 2015 and 2016, he was recognized for excellence in service delivery.

Prior to PTC, Andy was Director, Global IT for Servigistics where he had the overall responsibility for the company's global IT strategy, IT Security, business systems, and IT infrastructure including the company’s SaaS solution which hosts high-profile clients such as Dell, Cisco, GM, and Coca-Cola Refreshments.

In addition to various technical certifications, he holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Florida Atlantic University. Andy graduated with honors from FAU.

Tim Huffman is an Executive Vice President and Executive Committee member with CBREʼs

Data Center Solutions. With over 17 years of experience in data center operations

and telephony, he focuses on providing advisory and transaction services for

corporate clients requiring complex data center and technology strategies.

Experience:

As a leader in advisory and transaction services of data center real estate, Mr. Huffman

provides clients with expert services in negotiating complex data center outsourcing

solutions involving colocation, cloud services, telephony and managed services

solutions. His experience also includes data center dispositions, sale-leasebacks and

greenfield development. Additionally, he provides strategic consulting services to IT

leaders on data center consolidations and cloud services migrations.

Prior to joining CBRE, Mr. Huffman served as the National Director of the Technology

Solutions Group with Colliers International. His expertise and experience lend

themselves to collaborating across business, operations, technical and real estate teams

to strategize and deliver the best solutions to clients.

From 2000 to 2011, Mr. Huffman served as an executive in the data center sector

providing solutions and Managed Service Offerings to global organizations. Prior to

2000, he was a successful entrepreneur taking several start-up companies to market.

As an active member of his community and a Grammy-nominated recording artist, he

regularly volunteers his time with the Shepherd Center in Atlanta as a music therapist for

injured veterans and those suffering from brain and spinal cord injuries. Tim is still active

with his musical pursuits and has recorded or performed with musical talents, such as

Jimmy Buffett, Hall & Oates, Zac Brown Band, Graham Nash, and Kansas.

Patrick Barnett is Google Cloud's Head of Strategic Alliances for GSI GTM. He works with Google Cloud's primary GSI partners to develop and execute transformational cloud adoption projects for North America Enterprise Clients.

Wes Jensen Is currently employed as the Director of Technology and Innovation and Business Development for Digital Realty Trust. He is a forward thinking evangelist of artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning. Mr. Jensen has over 20 years of experience leading technology, network engineering and service organizations responsible for designing, installing, and maintaining compute, IT, security and connectivity infrastructures for Fortune 500 enterprises and service providers. He has had held executive and technical leadership positions at Netrolix, an AI startup he co-founded, CenturyLink/Level 3, Global Cloud Xchange, XO/Verizon, and more. Prior to entering private enterprise, Mr. Jensen served in Special Operations in the U.S. Army.

Over 20 years of experience leading various organizations helping customers solve IT issues from data center to cloud solutions. His roles have spanned from Operations at Digex in the late 90’s to leading sales engineers for Data Return, Terremark, Verizon and IBM over the last two decades. The focus has always been solving customer key initiatives with solutions.

Emil Sayegh is the President and CEO of Ntirety, the company formed by the merger of HOSTING of Denver, CO and Hostway of Austin, TX, the latter of which Emil has led since 2016.

Prior to Hostway, Emil was the chairman of the board, CEO, and president of Codero Hosting. Emil also led and expanded cloud computing and hosting businesses for HP and Rackspace.

As vice president and general manager of the cloud computing division at Rackspace, Emil spearheaded the company’s entry into the emerging public cloud market and rapidly grew the business to more than 100,000 clients. Emil also oversaw the global product roadmap at Rackspace and led the successful launch of private cloud and hosted exchange services.

In addition to his leadership roles, Emil spent more than 15 years in the IT industry developing, marketing, and managing products for Dell, RLX Technologies, and Compaq.

Emil is an avid Texas Longhorns fan and holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in business from the University of Texas at Austin. Emil also holds nine patents.

Emil is based in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife and four children. He’s an active outdoorsman who especially loves skiing, hunting, fishing, gardening, and traveling. You can also find him reading his favorite business classics like Good To Great, Built to Last, The 7 Habits, and Made to Stick.

Kevin Smith is a proven technology sales and marketing executive. He is currently serving as Chief

Revenue Officer for Ntirety. A University of Massachusetts graduate, Mr. Smith’s career has evolved

along with the technology landscape. Primarily working for private equity held companies, Kevin’s

career has flowed from competitive telecom and networking, through SaaS development and

deployment, and into Hybrid-Cloud managed services. Having driven value in various C and VP level

positions with NuVox, Windstream, Cloud Sherpas, EnablePath and now Ntirety, Kevin provides keen

market insights derived from strong business acumen. For outside interests, the Denver based

executive sums it up with this “When I am not at work I am either skiing, or teaching kids to hit and

steal”.

Sohail Zakaria has 20+ years of success strategizing, implementing, and leading teams at the brink of change and modern growth. He has a history of leveraging existing and emerging technologies, uncovering opportunities, and directing trailblazing strategies to improve overall delivery of product from idea to consumer. Zakaria is an expert in designing/simplifying solutions & implementing Application, Infrastructure, and Operation services for Large-scale enterprises to Start-ups. With a proven track record with a growth mindset providing unity, influence, collaboration, consistency, problem solving, and support to increase organization efficiencies he has excelled with competencies in Digital Strategy & Transformation, Datacenter Migration, Cloud & DevOps Architecture, Certified Scrum Master & Product Owner, Client Relationship Management & Retention, Budgeting & Financial Planning, Technical Planning & Execution, Business & Technology Alignment, Cost Control & Operational efficiency and Development & Empowerment of Technical Teams.