Lunch & Learn Keynote Session:

Up-Close with the Illinois Data Center Coalition: Public/Private Partnership Deep Dive

• 

  Elgie Sims, Jr.

  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.

  Illinois State Senator, 17th District

  Elgie Sims, Jr.

  Illinois State Senator, 17th District

• 

  Erin Braddock Guthrie

  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.

  Microsoft

  Senior Director, Cloud & AI Strategy

  Erin Braddock Guthrie

  Senior Director, Cloud & AI Strategy

  Microsoft

• 

  Rafal Rak

  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.

  Digital Realty Trust

  VP, Portfolio Management

  Rafal Rak

  VP, Portfolio Management

  Digital Realty Trust

• 

  Tyler Diers

  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.

  Illinois Chamber of Commerce

  Director, Legislative Relations

  Tyler Diers

  Director, Legislative Relations

  Illinois Chamber of Commerce

• 

  Michael Reever

  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).

  Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

  Senior VP, Strategy & Government Relations

  Michael Reever

  Senior VP, Strategy & Government Relations

  Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

• 

  Ed Sitar

  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.

  ComEd

  Manager, Economic & Business Development

  Ed Sitar

  Manager, Economic & Business Development

  ComEd

• 

  Mitchell Carrel

  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.

  Freeborn & Peters

  Partner

  Moderator

  Mitchell Carrel

  Partner

  Freeborn & Peters

Panelists

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  Michael Pegues

  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.

  City of Aurora, IL

  CIO

  Michael Pegues

  CIO

  City of Aurora, IL

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  Kevin McNicholas

  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.

  Lucera

  VP, Network Infrastructure & Design

  Kevin McNicholas

  VP, Network Infrastructure & Design

  Lucera

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  JP Morgenthal

   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.

  DXC Technology

  CTO, Application Services

  JP Morgenthal

  CTO, Application Services

  DXC Technology

• 

  Keith Basil

  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.

  Red Hat

  Senior Principal & Product Manager, Cloud Platform

  Keith Basil

  Senior Principal & Product Manager, Cloud Platform

  Red Hat

• 

  Edward Buck

  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.

  VPLS

  VP, Technology & Service Delivery

  Edward Buck

  VP, Technology & Service Delivery

  VPLS

• 

  John Brooks

  Director, Data Center & Server Services

  Walgreens

• 

  Stephan Abraitis

  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.

  Manulife

  VP, Global Technology Service Management (GTSM)

  Stephan Abraitis

  VP, Global Technology Service Management (GTSM)

  Manulife

• 

  Sohail Zakaria

  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.

  Microsoft

  Principal Azure Global Black Belt, Intelligent Cloud

  Sohail Zakaria

  Principal Azure Global Black Belt, Intelligent Cloud

  Microsoft

• 

  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

  Sean Farney

  VP, Data Center Strategy - Americas

  JLL

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  Angela Imming

  Director, Technology & Innovation

  City of Highland

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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

• 

  Vijay Vuppala

  Infrastructure Architecture Lead

  Dentons

• 

  Michael Bahr

  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.

  DRW Trading Group

  Head of Infrastructure, Data Center & Networking

  Michael Bahr

  Head of Infrastructure, Data Center & Networking

  DRW Trading Group

• 

  Damon Boyd, II

  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.

  W.W. Grainger

  Senior Manager, Engineering - CRE

  Damon Boyd, II

  Senior Manager, Engineering - CRE

  W.W. Grainger

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  Joel Sprague

  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.

  Cisco

  Systems Engineer

  Joel Sprague

  Systems Engineer

  Cisco

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  Matt VanderZanden

  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.

  STACK Infrastructure

  COO

  Matt VanderZanden

  COO

  STACK Infrastructure

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  Peter Feldman

  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.

  Digital Crossroads

  Chairman & CEO

  Peter Feldman

  Chairman & CEO

  Digital Crossroads

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  Daniel English

  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.

  Legacy Investing

  Managing Partner

  Daniel English

  Managing Partner

  Legacy Investing

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  Phillip Koblence

  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.

  NYI

  Co-Founder & COO

  Phillip Koblence

  Co-Founder & COO

  NYI

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  Timothy Doherty

  CEO

  Digital Fortress

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  Sean Khurana

  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.

  Cavern Technologies

  President & COO

  Sean Khurana

  President & COO

  Cavern Technologies

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  Eli Scher

  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.

  Open IX Association

  Chairman

  Eli Scher

  Chairman

  Open IX Association

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  Jen Herson

  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.

  Data Canopy

  President

  Jen Herson

  President

  Data Canopy

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  Rashad Kawmy

  Partner

  Boundary Street Capital

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  Tina Gravel

  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.

  Cyxtera Technologies

  Senior VP, Global Channels & Alliances

  Tina Gravel

  Senior VP, Global Channels & Alliances

  Cyxtera Technologies

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  Jennifer Curry

  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.

  INAP

  Senior VP, Global Cloud Services

  Jennifer Curry

  Senior VP, Global Cloud Services

  INAP

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  Mike Whitman

  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.

  Serverfarm

  Head of Critical Facilities Services

  Mike Whitman

  Head of Critical Facilities Services

  Serverfarm

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  Thomas Dakich

  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.

  Digital Crossroads

  Senior Manager

  Thomas Dakich

  Senior Manager

  Digital Crossroads

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  Peter Cohen

  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.

  QTS

  VP, Peering, Interconnectivity & Ecosystem

  Peter Cohen

  VP, Peering, Interconnectivity & Ecosystem

  QTS

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  David McCall

  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

  QTS

  Brand Evangelist

  David McCall

  Brand Evangelist

  QTS

• 

  Nate Olson-Daniel

  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.

  LightEdge Solutions

  VP & Technical Fellow

  Nate Olson-Daniel

  VP & Technical Fellow

  LightEdge Solutions

• 

  Crystal Lee Delany

  Senior Asset Manager

  Digital Realty Trust

• 

  Stacy England

  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.

  Data Holdings

  VP, Operations

  Stacy England

  VP, Operations

  Data Holdings

• 

  Juan Vasquez

  Director, Design & Construction

  CyrusOne

• 

  Alex Smith

  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.

  Cushman & Wakefield

  Vice Chair, Data Center Advisory Group

  Alex Smith

  Vice Chair, Data Center Advisory Group

  Cushman & Wakefield

• 

  Joseba Calvo

  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.

  EPI LATAM LLC

  Managing Partner

  Joseba Calvo

  Managing Partner

  EPI LATAM LLC

• 

  Otto Nichols, III

  Executive VP & Shareholder

  Clayco

• 

  Dave Meadows

  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.

  STULZ Air Technology Systems

  Director, Technology

  Dave Meadows

  Director, Technology

  STULZ Air Technology Systems

• 

  Eric Closson

  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.

  Corgan

  Associate

  Eric Closson

  Associate

  Corgan

Moderators

• 

  Wayne Dietrich

  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.

  Element Critical

  CRO

  Moderator

  Wayne Dietrich

  CRO

  Element Critical

• 

  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

• 

  Miles Loo, Jr.

  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.

  Newmark Valuation & Advisory

  Vice Chairman, Global Practice Leader – Data Centers

  Moderator

  Miles Loo, Jr.

  Vice Chairman, Global Practice Leader – Data Centers

  Newmark Valuation & Advisory

• 

  Jack McCarthy

  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.

  HED

  Principal & Studio Leader

  Moderator

  Jack McCarthy

  Principal & Studio Leader

  HED

• 

  Emily Naughton

  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.

  Mayer Brown

  Partner

  Moderator

  Emily Naughton

  Partner

  Mayer Brown

• 

  Bill Shanahan

  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.

  CT Group, Inc.

  Principal

  Moderator

  Bill Shanahan

  Principal

  CT Group, Inc.

• 

  Andy Stapleton

  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.

  Mortenson Construction

  VP & General Manager

  Moderator

  Andy Stapleton

  VP & General Manager

  Mortenson Construction

• 

  Jim Treadway

  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.

  MITRE

  Chief Engineer, IT

  Moderator

  Jim Treadway

  Chief Engineer, IT

  MITRE