Michael Pegues was appointed by Mayor Richard C. Irvin as Chief Information Officer for the City of Aurora, Illinois in June 2017. As an Aurora native, he began his career working in various IT Support roles for AT&T and Pepsi-Co in the Greater Chicago Area. Pegues has worked for the US Department of Defense as a civilian Automation Management Officer at US Army Garrison in Vicenza, Italy. Additionally, he has held various senior IT positions in Hewlett-Packard France, Vodafone Hungary and Morgan Stanley in Budapest, Hungary and New York, NY. Michael holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from DeVry University and an Executive MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management from Central European University Business School from Budapest, Hungary. Michael is a proud Veteran of the US Army.

Keith Basil is focused on leading the product management, positioning, and business strategy for security within the Red Hat OpenStack Platform product. Within Red Hat, he is leading a compliance driven approach toward addressing cloud infrastructure security. Compliance frameworks of interest include: FedRAMP, ANSSI, ETSI and the work being done by the Cloud Security Alliance.

Prior to Red Hat, Keith was instrumental in the design of a secure, high-performance cloud architecture that provided compute, storage and application hosting services for US public sector civilian agencies and contractors. His past experience in this area has accelerated Red Hat’s OpenStack Platform security awareness and feature positioning worldwide.

Working upstream in open source communities, he is a frequent speaker at conferences and has helped co-author and organize the effort to publish the OpenStack Security Guide.

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.

As a member of the Quicken Loans family, Jamie Fogal leads a team of infrastructure and operations engineers whose focus is on leveraging internal and enterprise tool sets to design and build robust, scalable, on-premise and cloud environments. With over 20 years in the IT industry, Jamie’s career spans small startups to large international organizations in the information technology sector. Prior to joining Quicken, he was charged with the design and operation of multistate mission critical data center infrastructure and critical facilities management efforts for large healthcare colos and Fortune 500 enterprises.

Fogal holds professional certifications in data center design (CDCDP), data center management (CDCMP) and data center energy management (DCEP). He is a member of Infragard and AFCOM where he serves as President of the Michigan Chapter. He is an alum of the technology-based academic and professional honor society, Epsilon Pi Tau. He has presented at a number of industry events, including Michigan AFCOM Chapter Conferences, the AFCOM Data Center World event, and at the Critical Power Expo.

Stephan Abraitis is a seasoned enterprise technology executive with over two decades of experience leading mission-critical infrastructure and global IT service transformations across the financial sector. He is best known for his tenure at RBC, where he spearheaded the global transformation of the bank’s high-availability data center portfolio, overseeing site strategy, design-build delivery, operational governance, and vendor management across more than 91 facilities worldwide.

At RBC, Stephan’s mandate included modernizing physical environments to support next-generation workloads, enhancing resiliency standards, and negotiating complex vendor and service provider contracts. He helped shape a scalable, risk-resilient platform strategy that enabled 24/7 uptime for trading, core banking, and customer-facing services; while delivering cost efficiencies and long-term modernization aligned with enterprise continuity requirements.

Currently at Manulife, Stephan leads a global IT organization of 750+ professionals delivering services across infrastructure, operations, service management, and AI Ops. Under his leadership, Manulife has accelerated its transition to a cloud-first architecture, while embedding AI-powered observability and automation across platforms.

Stephan is a speaker on enterprise resilience, operational excellence, and data center modernization. His unique blend of structured risk governance, engineering depth, and entrepreneurial leadership has made him a trusted advisor.

Edward Buck is the Vice President of Technology and Service delivery at VPLS. Ed’s executive responsibility includes the design, delivery, maintenance, operations, and support of all VPLS services. Prior to joining Evocative, Ed was a VP at UnitedLayer a San Francisco based Colocation and Hosting Company.

Ed also founded ASPextra in 2003, a company focused on providing scalable and highly available managed hosting solutions. At ASPextra, Ed built a network and service delivery internet infrastructure compromising of multiple, geographically dispersed data centers serving clients in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Ed was a senior manager at Oracle where his responsibilities included corporate business development, technology acquisitions, and strategic alliances. While at Oracle, Ed was deeply involved in technical evaluation, acquisition, and implementation of Internet and e-commerce technologies that shaped much of the Internet ecosystem in its early years.

Ed is a regular contributor to a number of open-source projects. He received his B.A. from Pomona College.

Arnett Thomas, II is a senior technology and business leader with over 25 years of building, developing and managing high performance networks and organizations for both Fortune 500 high-tech firms and startups. He is highly experienced in directly and indirectly leading cross-functional national and global sales, product, engineering and operations teams. Thomas is a strategic thinker with strong communications skills possessing a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

 JP Morgenthal is a veteran IT solutions executive and Global CTO,

Application Services, DXC. He has been delivering IT services to business

leaders for the past 30 years and is a recognized thought-leader in applying

emerging technology for business growth and innovation. JP's strengths

center around transformation and modernization leveraging next generation

platforms and technologies. He has held technical executive roles in multiple

businesses including: CTO, Chief Architect and Founder/CEO.

 Areas of expertise for JP include strategy, architecture, application

development, infrastructure and operations, cloud computing, DevOps, and

integration.

 JP is a published author with four trade publications with his most recent

being “Cloud Computing: Assessing the Risks”.

 JP holds both a Masters and Bachelors of Science in Computer Science from

Hofstra University.

Kevin McNicholas is the vice president of network infrastructure and design at Lucera, an industry-leading technology service provider delivering performant, secure and scalable solutions designed to power demanding financial applications. He is a versatile, top-tier commercially astute Information Technology executive with over 20 years of experience including, strategic planning, enterprise architecture, network design, technology delivery and project management, while providing executive leadership to the organization and optimizing capital and operational expenditure.

Ray Finato is a graduate of Illinois State University and has been in Facility Management, Design and Engineering for 38 years. Ray’s current role is Sr. Manager of Data Center Operations for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. The facility he currently manages is a mission critical facility that has had a 100% uptime rating for 24 years. Ray has worked for Motorola and has owned and operated his own design build private cinema company, and has now worked for BCBSIL for over 5 years.

Sean is the Vice President of Data Center Strategy for the Americas, charged with developing deeper client relationships, broader industry awareness, and enhanced partner collaboration by evangelizing JLL’s broad facility management, sustainability, commissioning, capital market, colocation and cloud advisory services. He works with clients to fully leverage the firm’s capabilities to maximum digital infrastructure value, minimize facility risk and drive data center innovation.

Sean has also led Digital Transformation strategic programs at two Fortune 500 companies, executing global data center consolidation and cloud migration, and initiatives that resulted in reduced time-to-revenue.

He is active in the industry, participating in panels, roundtables, podcasts, and other speaking events. Sean publishes regularly on such venues as Data Center Frontier, Data Center Dynamics, Mission Critical Magazine, and Data Centre Magazine.

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.

Mike Bahr joined DRW Holdings in 2013 and has built co-locations and stand-alone data centers for trading firms all over the world. Mike is also in charge of all MEP designs for all company offices globally. Mike also is co-founder of a start-up, Co-Low.com, a true subscription based colocation/data center finder for all IT needs. Mike lives in Crown Point, IN with his wife Colleen and his four children.

Joel Sprague has spent more than two decades in the IT industry with a specialization in data center and private cloud environments. Joel's experience encompasses anything from small SaaS providers to designing and managing private clouds for Fortune 100 companies. Joel currently uses this experience to help solve problems for clients in the Chicago area, specializing in legal, financial and manufacturing verticals.

Damon joined Grainger in 2013 as an Infrastructure Engineer in the Data Center Engineering Department, and has since taken on the role of Global Standards and Critical Space Manager. He has acquired a BS of Electrical Engineering in 1999. He also has a plethora IT certifications varying from network design to data center integrated systems. At Grainger Damon’s primary responsibility has been focused on the reliability, sustainability, and optimization of Grainger’s facility operations. Prior to joining Grainger, Damon has worked for Motorola, Fermi National Laboratory, Caterpillar, and Microsoft which has built a unique range of skill sets that has built the foundational strategic mindset needed to expand mission critical support.

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.

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.

Josh Henderson joined Ntirety in January 2021 with over 20 years of large-scale cloud and hosted Infrastructure, managed IT services, network, software development and consulting experience.

Prior to joining Ntirety, he served as CTO and COO for McLane Intelligent Solutions, CTO of Colo and Cloud at Zayo Group, and CTO for Clearview International. His experience across these roles includes high level IT strategy, technology lifecycle management, p&l management, operations, sales and full product life-cycle management in businesses ranging from startup to $2B+ in revenue.

Henderson is an Alumni of Baylor University. He resides in Austin.

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.

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.

Matthew VanderZanden is the Chief Operating Officer of STACK Infrastructure and represents the voice of the end user, driving STACK’s relentless focus on continually innovating its business around the needs of enterprise and hyperscale clients. He heads development and location strategy, product development, marketing, and strategic partnerships. Mr. VanderZanden brings end-user expertise, having spent most of the previous 10 years scaling Facebook’s (now Meta’s) worldwide data center footprint. As Director of Global Data Center Site Selection, Mr. VanderZanden built Facebook’s location strategy program and has deep experience in data center and other critical infrastructure development, government relations, incentives, and location strategy. Before joining Facebook, he practiced real estate law at Paul Hastings, an international law firm, and remains licensed to practice law in California. Mr. VanderZanden received a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Economics, with distinction, from the University of Washington.

Avner Papouchado has been the guiding force behind ServerFarm since its inception. Known for his intense business acumen, Papouchado has a proven track record of successful real estate investments. He has served as Red Sea Group’s North American CEO since 1993 and is an active member of the executive management team responsible for the company’s worldwide investment strategy. A certified pilot, Papouchado received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the New School for Social Research in New York.

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.

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.

Peter Feldman has 30+ years of data center development, operations, management and design experience, with a focus on implementing energy-efficient technology. He has held CEO, CTO, president and founding roles at several successful startups including the Telx group, a national leader in data center colocation services. Peter has additional expertise in optical and wireless network engineering, IT infrastructure management and cogeneration.

Prior to founding DataGryd, he served as the technical and business development interface with United Technologies Power for their hydrogen and natural gas fuel cell technology and CCHP micro-turbines, and worked with AMSC (formerly American Superconductor), a developer of superconducting cable, SMES and transformer technology for data centers. Peter holds several industry-related patents and is an active member of a number of professional trade organizations, including the IEEE, Open-IX, iMasons, AFCOM, the Green Building Council and the Cloud Computing Council. He’s given presentations at many industry events, including Interop New York, Green Data Center Conference & Exhibition, 7×24 Exchange, and IMN’s Financing, Investing & Real Estate Development for Data Centers Conference, PTC in Hawaii and for Data Center Dynamics conferences.

As the Chief Executive Officer, Aaron provides leadership, strategy, and management for

Base Partners with a focus on data center development and operations, as well as emerging

power and electricity technologies. Base Partners, Inc. is an advisory and development

company focused on next-generation mission-critical facilities and services.

Aaron has held numerous leadership positions throughout his career covering every facet of the data

center industry, including site selection and acquisition, sales, marketing, operations, finance and

more. Aaron started in the industry in the 1990s as a consultant, acquiring data center sites for

the first generation of mission critical facilities, before transitioning into the role of developer,

owner and operator of modern, efficient and sustainable data centers.

Prior to Base Partners, Aaron Was the Chief Operating Officer of T5 Data Centers. Aaron holds

a B.A. in Economics from the University of California Los Angeles.

Jonathan Atkin is a Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets. His focus areas include communications, internet and data infrastructure as well as cloud computing and telecom services. During the last six years, Jonathan has received the #1 ranking from Institutional Investor in the Communications Infrastructure sector. He has also received #1 rankings from Thomson Reuters in Telecom Services and Real Estate Equities, a #1 ranking from the Wall Street Journal in Internet Services, and a #1 ranking from the Financial Times in Telecom Services. Before joining RBC, Jonathan was a senior consultant at BIA Companies focused on wireless strategy and valuation, worked in corporate strategy at Daimler-Benz AG, and was a policy analyst with the United States Congress. He has an MBA from Columbia University and BS and MS degrees in engineering from Stanford University. He is a two-time finisher of the Ironman triathlon.

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.

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.

Sean Khurana is President and Chief Operating Officer of Cavern Technologies. Sean oversees daily operations and ongoing development initiatives to maintain and expand Cavern’s position as a leading data center solutions provider. Sean is dedicated to leading innovation in the industry and providing customers with product and service offerings that are second to none.

Mr. Khurana has a strong background in leading major business initiatives for large startups and Fortune 500 firms. His expertise in building businesses around new products, technologies, and customer segments are valuable assets. Most recently, Khurana was Senior VP for Avatron Park, a mega startup theme park based in Atlanta, GA. Prior positions included VP, Product Marketing for Cablevision in New York, NY, and VP, Strategic Programs and Business Operations for Sprint-Nextel, in Overland Park, KS. Sean also served as Chief of Staff, reporting directly to the Sprint CEO.

Mr. Khurana holds an MBA in Strategic Management and Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He also has an MS in Civil/Environmental Engineering from North Carolina State University, and an MS in Physics, as well as a BS in Civil Engineering, from Birla Institute of Technology and Science. Sean is actively involved as a community leader, serving as a Board Member for the Johnson County Community College Foundation and earning recognition on the Kansas City Civic Council as a Kansas City Tomorrow Nominee.

Jennifer Herson has more than a decade of experience in high tech marketing and operations. Jennifer is creative and versatile, having contributed directly to the success of a variety of organizations, including small startups, mid-sized firms, and multi-national enterprises. A communication specialist, with an eye for design, Jennifer has developed highly effective marketing content and campaigns for a variety of channels in the B2B high tech space. She approaches every challenge with a can-do collaborative spirit to deliver superior quality and results.

Jennifer is a member of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Alumni Association Board of Directors. She is also an avid O's fan and can often be found cheering them on with her husband and son.

A former U.S. Air Force officer who helped launch GPS satellites into orbit, as Chief Customer Officer, Craig leads the cross-functional management of T5’s customer engagement and success programs along with the development and execution of all corporate marketing and communications strategies. Craig holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Miami and a Master of Business Administration with concentrations in finance and marketing from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Henry Tran is an accomplished business and technical leader with over 20 years of experience in IT transformation. In his role as a General Manager of Rackspace Managed Hosting business, Henry is responsible for P&L Management, Product Strategy, Product Marketing and Management for this business unit at Rackspace.

Patrick Fiel is SVP, Corporate Development, at EdgeConneX, the only global data center platform focused exclusively on the Edge and Hyperscale. Patrick has nearly 20 years of experience negotiating corporate development, legal, real estate investment trust (REIT) and capital markets transactions. At EdgeConneX, Patrick leads global corporate development and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), including responsibility for structuring and executing EdgeConneX’s corporate strategies and growth initiatives. Previously, Patrick was with Equinix, the world’s leading interconnection and retail colocation data center provider. He also has served as a public company general counsel/ chief legal officer, an in-house counsel to a large financial institution focusing on global corporate investment banking, and as a capital markets advisor while at a multinational law firm. Patrick graduated from the College of William & Mary (where he has taught International Business Management as an adjunct professor) and the University of Tennessee College of Law.

An award-winning executive with more than 25 years of experience in the IT outsourcing, cloud,

security and SaaS industries, Tina is SVP of Global Channels and Alliances, Cyxtera. Prior to

Cyxtera, Tina was a Senior Vice President of Global Channels and Strategic Alliances for

Cryptzone, a Cyxtera Business. Before joining Cryptzone, Tina held the role of General Manager

and Vice President for Dimension Data’s Cloud Services Business in the Americas. Tina also

served as Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Nirvanix, leading the company’s

sales, marketing and indirect channel programs. Tina was a member of the original

management team at Terremark, a Verizon company, where she held several leadership roles

over 14 years, including Vice President of Global Channels and Alliances, Managing Partner for

the IT outsourcing (ITO) business, and Vice President of Terremark’s Central Region Sales

operations. Her guidance helped take the company from $400,000 in annual sales in 1999, to

the acquisition by Verizon for $1.4 billion in 2010. Tina also gained additional sales experience

in senior positions at leading IT companies including NetGravity (now owned by Google), SAS,

Sybase (now owned by SAP) and CSC. Tina has also worked as an independent consultant,

helping start up technology organizations to increase their revenue, monetize their intellectual

property assets and obtain funding.

In May of 2018, Tina Gravel Received WoM2M award for achievement in the field of IoT by

Connected World Magazine. In April 2018, Channel Partners Online awarded Tina one of the

highly coveted, “Channel Chief of the Year” awards. In April 2017, Tina received the Cloud Girls

“TrailBlazer Award” for her work in cloud computing and was named one of the “Women in the

Channel 2017” by CRN. In 2016, Tina was included as #18 in CRN’s “100 People You Don’t Know

but Should” List for her work with Cryptzone. In 2013, 2017, and 2018, Tina was included in

CRN’s annual Top 50 "Women of the Channel" list for her successful work in the indirect

channel and with alliances. In 2004, she was a top ten "Women in Black" recipient, an honor

given by the City of Chicago and istreet Magazine, which recognized Gravel’s leadership in the

technology industry. She has had published articles in many publications, serves on the

Advisory Board for Channel Partners Magazine (now a Penton Company) and the Executive

Board of the Illinois Technology Association. Board of Directors for Cloud Girls and Advisory

Board for Alliance of Women in the Channel.Follow Tina on Twitter @tgravel.

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.

Data Center / Computer Operations specialist with experience in a variety of industries including manufacturing, telecom, healthcare and ISP. – ITIL v2.0 Certified. Experienced in running multiple sites across time zones. Specific project activities have included process improvement, data center remodeling, energy efficiency and data center infrastructure hardening.

Prior to joining ServerFarm, Whitman worked as a VP of Facilities Operations for Canara, Inc. as well as for Thomson Reuters and CBRE.

Peter Cohen is a renowned peering and interconnection expert who has worked with ISPs, datacenters and OTTs around the globe for 20+ years. For the past seven years’ Cohen oversaw peering and interconnection at Netflix for much of North America. Prior to this, Cohen held network and peering leadership positions with Amazon, Tata, Telia, and Switch and Data (acquired by Equinix).

At QTS, Cohen advises customers and prospects on peering and interconnection and leads QTS’ strategy to broaden and diversify the distribution of peering and network resources including initiatives to create new Internet nexus points globally.

Cohen holds a B.S. in Speech Communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an avid traveler, cook, golfer and tennis player. He lives in the Washington DC area with his wife and their two boys.

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

David is Senior Vice President, Director of Sales for T5 Data Centers. David is responsible for

overseeing business growth and promoting the T5 Data Centers global portfolio and full

services capabilities. David’s role includes developing the go-to-market strategy for new

markets and leading the national sales team with its strategic initiatives.

David has led multi-market searches for some of the world’s largest companies and has closed

over 300 megawatts and over $1 billion of data center real estate transactions. Prior to joining

T5, David spent 10 years managing data center practice groups for commercial real estate firms.

David’s experience covers; site selection, advising clients on strategic acquisitions and risk

considerations, supply and demand market analysis, business development and client

management, Build-to-Suit/Developments and negotiating complex lease transactions.

David holds a Business Degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from the Kellogg

School of Management at Northwestern.

Outside of the office, David is an avid golfer, reader and BBQ enthusiast. David is passionate

about mentoring the younger generation and leveraging his network to help others. He is

involved in several charitable organizations including the Healthy Schools Campaign and The

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. David currently lives in Chicago, IL with his

wife and two children.

As a practicing attorney for more than 32 years, Tom’s practice has centered on the development of telecommunications and data centers. Tom has closed more than $500 million in transactions, including the sale or merger of companies on every continent (except Antarctica). Tom has represented and been a part of the legal and development teams that own urban data centers throughout the world, including the Quinby Building in Los Angeles, GNO TeleHouse in London, various entities in Indianapolis and 15 W. 37th Street in Manhattan, New York.

Tom is typically tasked to resolve specific problems, ranging from labor stoppages in Eastern Europe, to raising money for companies, to infrastructure and data center management issues in North America. His past clients include multinational corporations, foreign governments, and small businesses within specific industries. He uses his legal background to develop creative solutions to unique problems.

He has an unusual breadth and depth of substantive legal experience, including 20 years of experience serving as the Secretary and General Counsel for TK6, Inc./CES International, Inc. and 4 years of experience serving as General Counsel and minority shareholder of GEMCO Constructors, LLC.

Tom resides in Indianapolis and has worked from offices in London, Sydney, Tampa, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. He graduated from Wabash College and the Indiana University School of Law.

Josh Williams heads the sales engineering team at INAP, delivering application-driven, custom infrastructure and network solutions for clients that balance performance and efficiency. Known for getting in the trenches with all levels of client IT organizations, Williams has more than 16 years of experience architecting complex solutions in the enterprise. His deep IT management and consulting background, paired with INAP’s robust cloud, colocation and network portfolio, generate performant solutions tailored to the unique goals of clients. Williams holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Information Systems from Saint Ambrose University and multiple data center certifications from major technology providers such as VMware, Cisco, and EMC.

Mr. England brings nearly 25 years of experience in the Information

Technology, Critical Facilities, Operations and Management arena.

Mr. England is passionately involved in all aspects of the business

including operations of multiple data centers, Security, compliance with

SSAE 16 controls, PCI, HIPAA-Hitech, Leading pre- and post-sales

direction, initiatives, and support. Working closely with business

partners and the executive team on executing all efforts related to

operation, sales, marketing, operations, technical, and business

directives.

As one of the early contributors at LightEdge, Nate helped to build

LightEdge’s first generation DSL network and pioneered IP Wide Area

Networks before MPLS was a standard. Currently, he helps develop

revenue streams with LightEdge’s sales and engineering teams by

providing presales support and some implementation. He also works

continuously on product development and improvement. His areas

of expertise are Cisco UCS, routing and switching, voice, data center,

security, advocacy, cloud network and security and disaster recovery.

He’s used his expertise to design and build enterprise, data center,

and service provider networks. Nate has held a key role in the

development of all business systems to support these networks,

including product collateral, billing systems, data collection systems,

monitoring systems, ticketing systems, customer portal, and

operational support systems. Nate has also managed and mentored

regional Sales Engineers on designing, pricing, and selling Cloud IT

solutions.

Alex is one of the DCA Group’s truly national players, crisscrossing the country every year for site selection, advisory, and transactional work for his mission critical clients. Alex joined the firm in 2000 and was immediately drawn into work servicing the telecommunications boom by representing tenants in the acquisition of mission critical data centers and telecom facilities. In 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2016 Alex was the top producing broker in Chicago and the Midwest for C&W including ranking number 11 in the entire company. He is the youngest Vice Chair in the company.

Joseba has over 15 years of experience in the international mission critical industry, in various senior management positions with multinational companies. He also co-founded a company which was bought over by a Fortune 500 company. He is a focussed dynamic executive and entrepreneur with a proven track record in management, business development and establishing new ventures in different geographies. His strong technical background and keen awareness of business and personal dynamics in different cultures make him a very effective result oriented business manager.

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.

Eric Closson is an Associate at Corgan, a global architecture and interior design firm, where he specializes in data center design and has a strong background in site master planning, programming, and collaborative building design. During his tenure with the firm, Eric has been instrumental in the design of over seven million square feet of data center projects for a wide range of clients nationally. He is passionate about working in partnership with his clients and developing a clear focus for the design of highly effective and innovative environments.

Based in Northern New Jersey, Wayne brings 25 years of diverse experience in executive sales leadership, global strategic alliances, technical operations, business development, channel optimization and go-to-market execution across data center, telecommunications, enterprise, logistics & manufacturing, and research & development environments.

Prior to joining Element Critical, Wayne served as the Chief Sales Officer for Cologix, leading all aspects of customer acquisition and management. Previously he held positions of Head of Strategic Alliances at Ciena Corporation where he lead global partnership strategy, technology solutions design and go-to-market distribution, VP of Strategic Sales at Siemens Enterprise Communications (now Unify), progressive leadership roles culminating as VP of Channel Sales & Alliances at Level 3 Communications (now CenturyLink), and various management positions at Qwest Communications (also now CenturyLink), Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent), AT&T Bell Laboratories, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Wayne holds a bachelor’s degree in Health Physics from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and achieved a graduate degree in Interdisciplinary Telecommunications from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

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.

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.

Jack McCarthy PE, DCEP – Principal and Studio Leader for HED, Jack specializes in mission critical design and brings over 25 years of electrical design. Registered in 20 states, his project experience ranges from 1,000SF server rooms to large-scale facilities of all tier levels and sizes exceeding 100,000 SF, with projects located throughout the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and the Middle East.

Emily Naughton focuses her practice on transactions in the telecommunications, media and technology space, with an emphasis on cloud computing.  Emily has represented clients in connection with real estate acquisitions, development projects and leases, mergers and acquisitions involving cloud service providers, and telecommunications network infrastructure deals.  Emily has represented some of the world’s largest content providers globally in connection with network procurement and colocation and data center leases involving providers ranging from multinational companies to single facility operators. Emily has experience representing property owners in the acquisition, financing and development of real estate; landlords and tenants in a variety of short- and long-term leases and subleases; and developers on complex land use and permitting matters. Emily has also represented contractors and subcontractors in the negotiation of construction contracts and disputes. In addition to assisting clients on transactional matters, Emily has also regularly advised clients on general governance and operational issues from entity inception to dissolution.

Bill Shanahan is a Principal with the CT Group, Inc., a Manufacturer’s Rep Firm specializing in data center physical infrastructure. Throughout Bill’s career, he has worked with Fortune 500, Hyperscale, Financial and Co-Location organizations. He has deployed projects globally and has a passion for creating IT solutions to meet business requirements. Bill has worked with a variety of customers on UPS installations that meet demands for day 1, but allow for scalability as an organization expands. His passion for fiber in the data center allows him to plan and deploy successful 40/100G infrastructure design and installations. Regardless of the task on hand, he prioritizes the customer demands first, and meets their needs by utilizing all resources available. His ability to work as a team and collaborate with his peers allows for successful customer experiences. CT Group is currently representing APC, Hubbell, Sumitomo, Softing and Luna for customer data center projects.

Currently serving as the Vice President & General Manager for Mortenson’s Chicago office, Andy is focused on overall strategy development and direction of all facets of the group, including relationship management, preconstruction, construction and business development activities. He also works closely with Mortenson’s national Mission Critical team of experts across the country. Andy's unique technical background in MEP systems and passion for customer service has led to a robust career at Mortenson. Andy was selected to be part of Mortenson’s first international project, a substrates facility for Seagate Technology in Limavady, Northern Ireland. He has worked on a multitude of impressive projects, including the $211 million Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In June 2003, he returned to Chicago to become part of Mortenson’s Chicago operating group. Since then, Andy has worked on over $900 million of healthcare projects in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, while simultaneously leading Mortenson’s development of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) and Building Information Modeling (BIM). He actively participates in promoting the progress and education of these dynamic areas of our industry. Andy also served as the Director of Business Development for the Chicago office and was involved in many notable projects including data centers for QTS, Allstate Insurance, United Airlines and other mission critical customers and construction of the new Lurie Children’s hospital. Outside of Mortenson, Andy keeps a busy agenda filled with speaking engagements and civic activities.

Jim Treadway provides strategic and technical leadership to the MITRE Corporation’s Center for Information and Technology, delivering high-value capabilities in diverse areas of infrastructure, computing, networking, storage, and technical innovation. His work in datacenters has focused on developing and applying progressive, even disruptive technologies and methodologies that advance MITRE’s capability to be a stronger, more effective national resource. His work supports the advancement of MITRE’s virtualization platforms and advanced analytic capabilities. Jim is a passionate advocate for collaboration and innovation within MITRE, and extending these capabilities externally to a diverse, global user base.

SEN. ELGIE R. SIMS, JR. is serving his first term as State Senator for Illinois’ 17th Senate district, which includes portions of the South Side of Chicago, Chicago's south suburbs, and Will and Kankakee counties. He previously served nearly six years as the State Representative of Illinois’ 34th House district.Sims2018.

An attorney and second-generation small business owner, Elgie's commitment to hard work began at an early age while working in his family's business, where he learned that "nothing in life is given; it must be earned." Throughout college and during his time working in Springfield, he often commuted from downstate Illinois to help run his family's business on Chicago's South Side, he did the same while putting himself through law school.

Elgie continues to make a positive impact on every community he is a part of. As he was always taught: “to whom much is given, much is required.” He remains active in many civic organizations whose mission is to improve the quality of life for the communities they serve. As a community leader, he has worked to provide scholarships and books to children in need and worked to make our communities safer.

Erin Braddock Guthrie the Senior Director of Cloud & AI strategy at Microsoft. Prior to her current role, she held a role as the Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DCEO) for over two years. Guthrie also served as the regional general manager for Uber Midwest in Chicago where she partnered with cities and regulators to create safe, positive experiences for customers and residents. From 2013 to 2017, she was a client engagement manager and partnership portfolio manager at McKinsey & Company in Chicago. Previously, Guthrie worked as a product manager MBA intern at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, as an account executive at 4INFO and as a business development manager at Nokia in San Francisco. She received her MBA from the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business and Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Stanford University. Erin lives in Wicker Park with her husband and son.

Rafal Rak is Vice President of Digital Realty and serves as the company’s Portfolio Manager for Midwest and West regions. In this capacity, he has overall responsibility for strategic planning, development, operations, leasing and financial performance of 48 buildings with 9.2 million rentable square feet. Digital Realty is a leading global data center Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with 215 properties in 14 countries and 36 markets representing 34 million square feet in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. Digital Realty is the 8th largest publicly-traded REITs in the U.S. with a market capitalization of approximately $27 billion, a member of the prestigious S&P 500 and has been recognized by the EPA as one of the top 100 largest buyers of renewal energy.

Tyler tracks and engages on a broad swath of legislation of importance to Chamber members, including emerging technology issues. He works closely with the Chamber President and CEO and the various executive directors of Chamber's policy councils to help ensure the competitiveness of Chamber members at the Illinois capitol. In addition, he is the editor of the Chamber’s weekly Government Affairs Report. Tyler comes to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce from the Senate Republican staff where he was a legislative analyst. Tyler graduated cum laude at Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.

Michael is Senior Vice President of Strategy and Government Relations for the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. He previously worked as Assistant Legal Counsel for Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton, and Chief of Staff to state Representative Ann M. Williams. He has volunteered on numerous campaigns at the City and State level, including serving as a volunteer election law attorney during two election cycles for the Democratic Party of Illinois. He is a veteran, and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Reserves after 8 years of service as a Sergeant (E-5).

Ed Sitar (pronounced “sitter”) is the Senior Manager of Economic Development at ComEd, where he oversees the company’s strategy and efforts to recruit and retain large business customers and grow jobs and investment in key industries across northern Illinois. Ed is a 29-year veteran of the company, where he has worked closely with development partners to leverage ComEd’s reliable, affordable, and clean energy services to secure major business investment wins for the region. During his tenure with ComEd, he has been a part of the company’s competitive business attraction efforts, helping prospective customers’ to navigate a decision to expand or grow in Illinois amid a changing regulatory climate (prior to the industry’s deregulation in 1997, and on to Illinois’ nation-leading CEJA law). He has also shaped commercial energy efficiency policies and programs to serve the needs of ComEd’s large customers and helped support development projects with commitments to create 250,000 jobs over the last decade.

Mitch Carrel is a Partner in the Real Estate Practice Group.

His practice focuses on representing public and private companies, land owners, developers and investors and helping them secure land use and zoning approvals, public incentives, local regulatory and siting approvals, as well as performing zoning due diligence. Among Mitch's projects, he has helped obtain approvals for the siting of wireless communications facilities and written about the process from siting to completion. He also represents clients before local plan commissions, zoning boards and city councils. Before joining Freeborn, Mitch was a shareholder and led the Land Use Group at Vedder Price PC in Chicago.

As a member of the both the Food and Transportation Teams, Mitch helps companies in these industries secure land use and zoning approvals, public incentives, and local regulatory and siting approvals.

Mitch also contributes to The Freeborn Dispatch Blog(link is external), the firm's transportation blog.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

Land use and zoning approvals for a 53-story, mixed-use, high-rise building in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood.

Land use and related approvals for a 40-story mixed use, office, retail and residential building on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

Oversight of zoning, entitlements, and street vacation matters to ensure rail operations were not impeded or negatively impacted, as part of a sale of air rights over existing rail operations, allowing for a 750-foot tall office building to be constructed in downtown Chicago.

Land use, street vacations and related approvals for numerous market rate and affordable senior housing developments including assisted living facilities, supportive living facilities, and memory care facilities in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs.

Land use and zoning due diligence in connection with the acquisition of an approximately $112 million 27-story, Class A mixed-use office building in Chicago’s Central Business District.

Land use and related diligence to assist a joint venture partner in connection with proposals for a 2,000-foot tall, $1.5 billion project in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood.

Land use, financial incentives, fiber optic conduit path use agreements and other approvals in connection with data centers in downtown Chicago.

Land use and related approvals for a youth sports academy sponsored by two major Chicago sports team in the Chicago suburbs.

Conduit Path and Facility Use Agreement with the City of Chicago for a data center project.

Land use and public way waivers and approvals for high rise, mixed use projects on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

Land use approvals for an approximately 400,000 square foot manufacturing facility in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Land use, public way and related approvals for numerous hospital expansions in Chicago.

Public way approvals for numerous high rise buildings in downtown Chicago.

Land use, zoning and public way approvals for shopping center expansion projects in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs.

Land use and related approvals for numerous grocery store projects in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs.

Land use and related approvals for numerous branch banks in Chicago and the Chicago suburbs.

Represented a food-related company in connection with a drive-through coffee facility on Chicago's north side.

Assisted banking institutions with drive-through facilities in Chicago and in the Chicago suburbs,

Land use related approvals for numerous dialysis centers throughout Chicago.