The State of the Data Center Market

Chris Sharp has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry, with an extensive background in developing technology strategies in global markets. He has a deep knowledge of the data center sector and is well positioned to expand technical innovation at Digital Realty. Most recently, he was responsible for cloud innovation at Equinix, where he led the development of innovative cloud services solutions and developed new capabilities enabling next-generation, high-performance exchange and interconnection solutions, facilitating broad commercial adoption of cloud computing on a global basis. Previously, Mr. Sharp held leadership positions at top network and colocation providers, including Qwest Communications, MCI/Verizon Business and Reliance Globalcom.

Mr. Rashid joined Brookfield in 2012, and since joining, has worked on numerous transactions globally, including the acquisitions of TraPac (2013), Poseidon (2016), AT&T’s data center business (2018), Ascenty data centers (2018), Enercare (2018) and the take private of Genness & Wyoming (2019) as well as various district energy transactions. Prior to joining Brookfield, Mr. Rashid worked in a large accounting firm’s Transaction Services group in Toronto. Mr. Rashid holds a Bachelor of Mathematics and Masters in Accounting from the University of Waterloo. Mr. Rashid is a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Bill sits on the Board of Directors of Digital Realty Trust (DLR: NYSE) and Windstream (WIN: NASD). He chairs the Compensation Committee at Windstream and the Nominating and Governance Committee at Digital Realty Trust. Bill also serves on two private company boards. Bill served as Executive Chairman of Hylan from 2016 to 2019 helping Hylan transition from an NYC centric family run construction business to a national provider. Bill is active in the private equity segment as well. He presently serves as a senior advisor at Blackstone for their infrastructure fund. Bill also served on the boards such as Cross River Fiber and Global Capacity. Before joining AboveNet, Mr. LaPerch served as Senior Vice President of Network Services at MCI and he also held executive positions at NYNEX. Mr. LaPerch is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and he received his M.B.A. from Columbia 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.

Adam Knobloch has been involved in the commercial real estate event and media space since 2010, having held roles in sales, account management, production and coordination. He joined Bisnow Media as the Global Director of Data Centers after having led event sales and strategy efforts in the CRE space for nearly a decade. Since 2012, he has found a significant passion for the data center and technology sectors, while building an international network of active followers across numerous asset classes in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland. In his current role, Adam oversees Bisnow Media's event and sponsored media strategy for the data center sector, having expanded its Datacenter Investment Conference & Expo (DICE) Series event offerings to more than 15 markets, with an international presence in the UK and Canada. He previously held a board member role on the Telecom Exchange (TEX) Advisory Board, collaborating on content, speaker recommendations and event strategy. Additionally, he has made a point of promoting local and national organizations with a focus on STEM education and advancing the next generation into the technology sector through support, collaboration and ambassadorship. Notable organizations include the Nomad Futurist Academy, Infrastructure Masons, H5 Data Centers' STEM Fest and local chapters of both 7X24 Exchange and AFCOM. In his personal life, Adam is a musician, having toured the east coast as the drummer of The Gantry. He was a frequent member of the NYC folk/indie rock music scene and is currently the drummer for A.M. County. Adam holds a Bachelor's Degree of Business Administration from American University's Kogod School of Business, with a focus on Marketing and Public Relations.