The State of the Rocky Mountain Data Center Market:

Is this Region Ready to Become a Top Data Center Hub?

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  Thomas Bailey

  Tom Bailey joined the Xcel Energy team as Senior Director, Corporate Economic Development in January. Tom is responsible for engaging customers to locate new facilities within Xcel Energy’s service territory and supporting the expansion of existing customers increasing opportunities for capital and revenue growth, job creation and community advancement. Previously with CenterPoint Energy/Vectren Corporation, Tom has over 20 years of utility experience where he held several customer experience, industrial sales and economic development roles.  His most recent responsibilities were leading and executing detailed contract negotiations and rate design to successfully attract and retain industrial and advanced manufacturing projects in excess of $20B in capital investment.  Tom earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. He earned his MBA from Arthur J. Bauernfeind College of Business at Murray State University. Additionally, Tom completed the Mays Business School Executive Development Leadership Program from Texas A&M University. Tom and his wife, Jennifer, currently reside in Parker, CO and have two children, Zelma and Hartwell.

  Xcel Energy

  Senior Director, Corporate Economic Development

  Thomas Bailey

  Senior Director, Corporate Economic Development

  Xcel Energy

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  Jason Carolan

  Jason leads a team focused on defining, assessing and providing direction on the changing technology landscape of Flexential’s business and customers. He and his team are responsible for developing insights on what is next on the horizon to further position Flexential as a hybrid IT and data center leader. He joined the company in 2011 and has held various roles in product, operations and technical management. Jason has over 25 years of experience in leadership positions in product architecture, software engineering, and technical sales and support across a variety of companies, including Sun Microsystems, where Jason was honored as a Distinguished Engineer, VMware and the Mayo Clinic. Jason was the lead author of “Building N1 Grid Solutions,” one of the first books highlighting the combined use of virtualization and automation. He also has several patents in networking, data center resource management, virtualization, and security. He attended Luther College and Western Governor’s University.

  Flexential

  Chief Innovation Officer

  Jason Carolan

  Chief Innovation Officer

  Flexential

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  Kristine Fraley

  Kristine Fraley is one of the founders and Chief Operating Officer of 2210Cortez, a carrier neutral co-location facility and data center in Cortez, Colorado, located in the Four Corners region. Kristine has worked in both a paid and volunteer capacity to promote economic development in Montezuma County and the Cortez area. She is passionate about helping her community become more resilient and sees fiber, broadband and a Data Center hub, key to lifting up the region. Kristine worked for 16 years in the non-profit community, 10 of those serving as an Executive Director. She has also served in a leadership role on several non-profit boards. She owned and operated a small business for an additional 10 years before becoming a current co-owner of a managed service and security provider in the Cortez region as well as founding 2210Cortez.

  2210Cortez

  Co-Founder & COO

  Kristine Fraley

  Co-Founder & COO

  2210Cortez

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  Regis Malloy

  Regis has spent nearly 30 years in the technology industry, primarily in strategy, sales, business development, partnerships, and corporate development capacities. As Chief Strategy Officer, Regis will help shape the company’s strategic vision for market growth and site expansion. Leveraging his broad colocation experience with hyperscale, wholesale, retail, and edge, Malloy will also contribute to Element Critical’s product design, go-to-market, and sustainability efforts. Regis came into the data center industry in 2010 and has held key positions at CoreSite and Sabey Data Centers. Previously, Regis held important roles at leading software, communications, and managed services companies, including Oracle, Avaya, and Qwest CyberSolutions.

  Element Critical

  CSO

  Regis Malloy

  CSO

  Element Critical

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  Jules Sherwood

  Mr. Sherwood is a principal and founder of Kenai Capital Advisors. He has more than 15 years of experience in commercial real estate investments, asset management, and capital markets. Jules is intently focused on the strategic direction of the company, strategic acquisitions, capital relationships, and asset management. Prior to creating Kenai Capital, Jules started the middle market investment sales platform in the Rocky Mountain region for Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF). He represented High Net-Worth Individuals, Family Offices, Private Equity groups, and institutional investment advisors on their industrial and office holdings. During his time at HFF, Jules was a part of over $1 billion in real estate sales, financings, and equity raises. He served as the Broker of Record for HFF in 6 states. Before joining HFF, Jules opened the Denver office of Rockwood Real Estate Advisors, a New York based real estate investment advisor. At Rockwood, he led an investment sales team covering retail, office, and industrial assets across the mountain west and functioned as the broker of record for the company in more than 20 states. Prior to that, he was the regional director of real estate for the western United States for Trigild, then the largest receivership company in the country. At Trigild, he helped grow their assets under management from 200,000sf to over 20,000,000sf in under 3 years. Jules is a former Lieutenant in the United States Navy, has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cornell University, and an MBA in finance from Arizona State University.

  Kenai Capital Advisors

  Founder & Principal

  Jules Sherwood

  Founder & Principal

  Kenai Capital Advisors

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  Kemal Hawa

  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.

  Kirkland & Ellis

  Partner

  Moderator

  Kemal Hawa

  Partner

  Kirkland & Ellis

The Future of IT Cloud Infrastructure:

How are Enterprises and Providers Optimizing for Efficient Management and Operation Solutions?

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  Paul Hill

  Principal Cloud Specialist

  Cologix

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  Nabeel Mahmood

  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.

  Nomad Futurist Foundation

  Co-Founder

  Nabeel Mahmood

  Co-Founder

  Nomad Futurist Foundation

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  KC Mares

  Director, Industry Strategy - Data Centers

  CPower Energy Management

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  Dale Pickering

  Dale Pickering has spent his whole life “chasing electrons.” As a Power Quality Electrical Engineer, he has worked at numerous high-tech facilities such as NCR, AT&T, and ATMEL. He has also assisted the Colorado Springs Utilities as a consultant, and now works for FedEx at their Enterprise Data Center in Colorado Springs. He currently brings his expertise to the table in providing a smooth, seamless electrical system for the ongoing 24x7 operation of FedEx—worldwide!

  FedEx Express

  Lead Electrical Engineer, World HQ Data Center

  Dale Pickering

  Lead Electrical Engineer, World HQ Data Center

  FedEx Express

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  Kelly Sullivan

  Senior VP, Global Data Centers

  Cyxtera Technologies

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  Jon deRidder

  Jon deRidder studied Organizational Management at Colorado Christian University, has served in various leadership positions over the past 20 years and has a deeply rooted passion to serve others. Jon’s aim is to perfect the “service approach” working to guide customers through the complex and elusive challenges facing data center environments. Jon brings experience from having worked with over 200 data center clients and a significant network of influencers. Jon is gifted at ensuring that the most important issues facing our customers are uncovered, discussed, well-understood and solved. Jon’s many industry-specific speaking engagements include AFCOM, AFEC, ASHRAE, BOMA, CAPRE, EPA and the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

  DP Guardian

  CEO

  Moderator

  Jon deRidder

  CEO

  DP Guardian

Roundtable Discussion: Roundtable Discussion: Site Selection and Speed-to-Market:

How Does the Edge Play into the Overall Cloud Strategy?

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  Tony Grayson

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

  Compass Quantum

  General Manager

  Tony Grayson

  General Manager

  Compass Quantum

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  Bryan Weeks

  VP, Hyperscale

  EdgeConneX

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  Rhea Williams

  Principal, Site Selection

  Oracle

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  Sean Farney

  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.

  JLL

  VP, Data Center Strategy - Americas

  Moderator

  Sean Farney

  VP, Data Center Strategy - Americas

  JLL

Construction & Design:

From retrofit to purpose-built, how are providers meeting the increasing demand with sustainability with mind?

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  Jonathan Gibbs

  Mr. Gibbs serves as SVP of Design and Construction for Prime. With over 10 years of industry experience and perspective, he leads Prime’s physical building development efforts globally. Jonathan’s design and construction portfolio consists of over $15B throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

  Prime Data Centers

  Senior VP, Design & Construction

  Jonathan Gibbs

  Senior VP, Design & Construction

  Prime Data Centers

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  Danny Horton

  Danny Horton has almost three decades of experience building data centers for organizations such as Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and the federal government. Danny is excited to leverage his knowledge of data centers on the owner side to help his new clients build success. He leads PCL Construction’s Data Center and Mission Critical Construction program by establishing processes and procedures for construction and working in live data centers.

  PCL Construction

  Sr. Project Manager, Data Centers / Mission Critical

  Danny Horton

  Sr. Project Manager, Data Centers / Mission Critical

  PCL Construction

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  Aaron Prill

  Sr Director, Data Center Construction

  Switch

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  Phil Skinner

  Director, Data Center Construction Operations

  CoreSite

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  Amanda Sutton

  Senior Director, Sustainability

  Vantage Data Centers

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  Carsten Baumann

  In his role as a Solution Architect, he is helping clients with their Industrial IoT and Sustainability initiatives in the Commercial & Industrial and Data Center markets that allow to achieve greater resiliency, achieve sustainability objectives and create economic benefits. Prior, he supported the Consulting and Engineering community by advising on resource-optimized energy management solutions in the data center market. He offers nearly three decades of experience in the data center, broadcast, telecommunications, AV and IT industry. His papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals and he frequently speaks on national and international venues. Baumann, joined Schneider Electric in early 2012. He is an active member of iMasons and the Green G working group (Next G). Until 2018, he served as Treasurer and President on the board of AFCOM Southern California, was chairman for The Global Society for Asset Management (G-SAM). Baumann recently completed a program at MIT in Smart Manufacturing and holds an electrical engineering degree from the Theodor-Litt-Schule in Giessen, Germany.

  Schneider Electric

  Director, Strategic Initiatives - Solution Architect

  Moderator

  Carsten Baumann

  Director, Strategic Initiatives - Solution Architect

  Schneider Electric