Michael Kovacs founded Castleforge in 2010. Prior to founding Castleforge, Michael worked at Westbrook Partners in London, where he was involved in transactions for Westbrook’s various funds in the UK, Europe and Asia across a diverse range of real estate investment types. Prior to Westbrook Partners, Michael worked at The Blackstone Group in New York, where he was involved in mergers and acquisitions across a wide range of industry sectors. Michael graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and he currently serves on the University’s UK Europe Leadership Committee.

Christina joined VIRTUS as VP Business Development EMEA in June

2022 with over ten years’ experience in developing strategies for, and

expanding, existing and new hyperscale infrastructure geographies

across EMEA.

For the past decade, she has worked for Amazon in EMEA, where she

expanded the existing AWS data centre regions in colocation and self-

built facilities, as well as launched new region geographies as the

country manager. In her previous role as Data Center Divestiture

Principal at Amazon Web Services in EMEA, Christina worked alongside

large strategic hyperscale cloud customers, advising them on their

infrastructure assets and developing new models to facilitate and

enhance their cloud migration journey.

Emma leads CyrusOne’s public policy activity in Europe in a role that spans both strategic

and operational functions. She is responsible for identifying, monitoring and responding to

regulatory developments across multiple jurisdictions. In addition to advocacy she supports

the company’s community engagement activities.

Prior to joining CyrusOne she spent almost two years at environmental consultancy ERM

where she specialised in data centre sustainability and resilience. Previously Emma spent

over a decade at trade body techUK where she provided a collective voice for operators on

matters of policy, compliance and reputation. She monitored regulatory developments,

responded to consultations and produced over 200 sector-specific publications on topics

ranging from data protection to climate change adaptation.

Emma has a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing this growing sector,

from power provisioning to public perception and is recognised for her thought leadership

and clarity of expression. Emma sat on the Board of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact

from 2021-2022 and was appointed to the Infrastructure Mason’s Advisory Council in 2021.

She is a judge on several international award platforms.

Simon joined VIRTUS in December 2022 to lead site selection and acquisition for VIRTUS' European expansion. A Chartered Surveyor, Simon has worked in the Data Centre sector for over 7 years having previously held roles as European VP, Data Centres at Prologis and Real Estate Principle and Region Lead for AWS where he was responsible for delivering the Real Estate growth of AWS' existing and new Regions. Simon and his team were instrumental in selecting sites and closing transactions in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Israel, UAE and South Africa.

Prior to Data Centres Simon spent 20 years in acquisition and development focusing on the Logistics sector working for Amazon in the UK, France and Spain and Wincanton PLC.

Alexis Kantt is a Managing Director at Blackstone and leads all Digital Infrastructure investments in Europe.

Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Kantt was a Senior Vice President at Starwood Capital Group.

Zahl Limbuwala is an Operating Partner at DTCP, focusing on digital infrastructure. Zahl is also Chairman of the Supervisory Board at maincubes Secure Data Centers, a colocation business and largest supplier of capacity to the German Government. He has more than thirty years of operating experience in the digital infra and technology sectors.

Before joining DTCP, Zahl was Chief Operating Officer at AtlasEdge Data Centers. Prior to that, he was responsible for strategy and strategic client engagement at CBRE’s Data Center Solutions business unit, which managed over five hundred client data centers globally. Zahl has led technology organizations across software development, IT hardware, communication networks, and data center facilities.

Huw joined Ark in November 2012 as Chief Executive to lead a new Management Team following the recapitalisation of the company. He has held key roles at a number of organisations, including President, BT Global Services and Regional Vice President, HP Defence and Security. Other roles in his extensive career include Chief Executive of the Atlas Consortium.

A qualified lawyer, Huw also worked for the Asia Foundation, formulating and driving national reform programmes in Cambodia, as well as advising the United Nations on their efforts in Central Asia. Before this, he served with the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, latterly as a Detective Inspector

Jonathan is one of the partners leading G&T’s engineering services team and data centre sector.

Jonathan’s focus is on engineering services intensive projects such as data centres, major plant refurbishments, remedial works and central energy centre schemes.

He has successfully led major projects as the main quantity surveyor, managing both the building and engineering services elements.

He is a 'hands on' leader and manages projects across various sectors.

Dawn is the CEO of Pure Data Centres Group building and operating hyperscale

data centres. Before joining Pure she led a multi-billion transformation programme

for National Grid across both the gas and electricity transmission businesses. This

followed several senior engineering appointments as: the Group Engineering

Director for Merlin Entertainments with responsibility for engineering delivery and

standards across the worldwide portfolio of theme parks; and the Head of

Engineering at Gatwick Airport. She joined Gatwick after 23 years as an Engineering

Officer in the Royal Air Force.

She is a Trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Chairs the Audit & Risk

Committee, Deputy Chair of World Skills UK, and a Trustee of the Air League. She

was the longest serving President of the Women’s Engineering Society, turning it

around over a 5-year tenure, and is currently the Chair of the iMasons D&I

Committee.

She was honoured with a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in

October 2020 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the engineering

profession and was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) for

services to engineering in the King’s New Years Honours 2023.

Mauro serves as the Global Head of Design and Engineering at Colt DCS, with a distinguished career spanning years in engineering consultancies serving Hyperscalers clients. At Colt DCS, Mauro is instrumental in shaping the future of their product offering, driving innovation with strategic vision to meet the evolving needs of clients around the globe and of new technologies like liquid cooling and AI workloads. Beyond his role at Colt DCS, Mauro is a respected thought leader and mentor within the engineering community. He is passionate about sharing his knowledge and expertise, inspiring the next generation of innovators to pursue excellence and push the boundaries of what's possible.

Reid Senescu is VP of Product Management at Doxel. His team talks with folks in construction and communicates their needs to software developers who use AI to help the industry build better, faster, with lower costs. His career began as a structural engineer, founded a construction tech startup out of his PhD research at Stanford and then led product for Rhumbix followed by Enlighted (acquired by Siemens).

David Mitchell is the Founder & CEO of construction technology company, XYZ

Reality, the company behind the Atom – the world’s most accurate Engineering-

Grade Augmented Reality headset. Before founding XYZ Reality, David worked as a

digital construction manager on some of Europe’s largest projects including: The

Shard, Battersea power station and hyper-scale data centres. David is a leading

expert in digital construction and has been recognised for his innovation in this

space.

Tom is Laing O’Rourke’s Sector Leader for Data Centres. A civil engineer with global experience in the delivery of iconic developments across a range of sectors, Tom has harnessed his 20 years’ project delivery expertise and passion for innovation to deliver at the cutting edge of the industry, through Design for Manufacture and Assembly, digital delivery, and developing strategic relationships with repeat clients.

As Sector Lead Tom engages with clients, consultants and development managers to identify ways to add value and deliver with greater certainty to meet ever-increasing needs of safety, sustainability, time and cost.

Stefan Nasstrom is a seasoned professional with a 33-year track record in the energy sector. His expertise spans a broad spectrum, encompassing electric and natural gas commodities in both retail and wholesale energy markets, as well as proficiency in demand-side projects, resiliency solutions and regulatory affairs. In his most recent engagement as the Director, Environmental & Energy Markets for MIRATECH GmbH, Stefan broadened his scope to include resiliency and decarbonization of the grid, showcasing his adaptability to evolving regulatory industry demands. Simultaneously, he supported data center clients in achieving resiliency goals while steering them towards ambitious sustainability objectives. With a wealth of experience spanning multiple facets of the energy and regulatory sector, and a demonstrated ability to navigate complex challenges, Stefan could be a valuable resource in driving innovation and sustainability within the Data Center industry.

Having studied Law at Cambridge, Charlie moved directly into real estate investment banking at Lazard.

In 2012 he moved to the Real Estate Investment Banking team at JLL. He specialises in structured transactions and capital raises in the operational real estate sectors, advising on circa €5bn worth of transactions across 10 countries.

Since 2020, Charlie has had a specific focus on Data Centres and has worked with the full spectrum of parties in the industry in both investment transactions and capital raisings: cloud provider tenants, developers, operators and investors in the industry

Notable transactions in the Data Centre market include:

Acquisition of London development site for Microsoft

Acquisition of regional UK development site for Microsoft

Sale of a 40MW Madrid development to PIMCO/Thor

Sale of a 150MW Frankfurt development to hyperscale operator

Sale of partially pre-let asset 7.5MW asset in Brussels