Making IT Rain:

How Investors and Developers Are Navigating The Current Investment and Deal-Making Landscape

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  Fentress Boyse

  Fentress Boyse is part of the Private Infrastructure Americas business unit at Partners Group, based in New York. He has been with Partners Group since 2014. Partners Group is a leading global private markets firm that seeks to capitalize on thematic growth trends and transform attractive businesses into market leaders. Fentress focuses on the origination, execution, and ongoing value creation activities for lead direct infrastructure investments in the communications, energy, water and services sectors. He is on the Board of Directors and is the Investment Leader for Partners Group’s investment in EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure. Prior to joining Partners Group, he worked at Citigroup. He holds a master’s degree in energy studies and international finance from The Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington D.C. and a bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

  Partners Group

  Member of Mgmt., Private Infrastructure - Americas

  Fentress Boyse

  Member of Mgmt., Private Infrastructure - Americas

  Partners Group

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  Jennifer Fritzsche

  Prior to joining Greenhill, Jennifer was CFO, Manager & Board Member of Canopy Spectrum, a company focused on the wireless spectrum space. Prior to that, Jennifer was as Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo Securities for 25 years where she focused on the Telecommunication Services, Cable, Data Center and Tower sectors. During her tenure at Wells Fargo, Jennifer received numerous awards including top rankings from Institutional Investor in the Communications Infrastructure space for each of the last 4 years (2017 – 2020). In 2020, Fifth Generation Media named Jennifer one of the Top 10 Women in Connectivity & Tech. Jennifer started in telecom equity research in 1996 with EVEREN Securities. Jennifer holds an MBA from Northeastern University and a BA in history from the College of the Holy Cross.

  Greenhill

  Managing Director

  Jennifer Fritzsche

  Managing Director

  Greenhill

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  Sadiq Malik

  Sadiq Malik is a Managing Director at DigitalBridge Investment Management. Mr. Malik is a seasoned investment professional with over 20 years of in-depth investing experience in private, distressed and public companies across a variety of industries including the digital infrastructure verticals of towers, data centers, fiber and ground lease buyouts. At DigitalBridge, Mr. Malik is responsible for identifying, evaluating, consummating, and managing investments across all our verticals globally with a specific focus on the Americas and the MEA regions. Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Mr. Malik was a co-founding partner of Oskie Capital, a public and private equity firm, which invested in companies undergoing positive business transformations and corporate change. Previously, he also worked on President Obama’s Auto Task Force at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the financial crisis in 2009. Earlier in his career Mr. Malik was an investment professional at Och-Ziff Capital, The Blackstone Group and Morgan Stanley. Mr. Malik received a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA, with distinction, from Harvard Business School.

  DigitalBridge

  Managing Director

  Sadiq Malik

  Managing Director

  DigitalBridge

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  Jeffrey Moerdler

  Jeff Moerdler is chair of the Haynes Boone Data Center and Digital Infrastructure Practice and a real estate partner in the New York office. He has more than 40 years’ experience in general commercial real estate law. Jeff’s real estate practice includes acquisitions, sales, development, leasing, and borrower’s side financing. Jeff also has a particular focus on real estate challenges facing communications, technology and energy companies, and represents property owners and telecom companies in telecom real estate matters, particularly in data center development, acquisitions, sales, leases, colocation agreements and service level agreements. His clients include both large national companies and smaller, local clients, and includes representation of landlords and tenants in all types of leases; counseling owners and developers in the acquisition, sale, joint venture, development, and renovation of property as well as sale-leaseback transactions; advising lenders and borrowers in commercial loans; and the representation of all parties in real estate litigation. He is actively involved in settling real estate, partnership, and inter-family disputes. He also represents many not-for-profit entities and is active in health care, senior living, and educational real estate.

  Haynes and Boone, LLP

  Partner & Chair, Data Center & Digital Infrastructure

  Jeffrey Moerdler

  Partner & Chair, Data Center & Digital Infrastructure

  Haynes and Boone, LLP

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  Corey Welp

  Corey Welp is the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty ("1547"). Mr. Welp is responsible for defining and implementing the firm's investment strategy, overseeing portfolio construction, financial modeling, risk assessment, asset acquisition, and property monetization. He is also actively engaged in securing debt and equity capital and maintaining investor relations. Under his leadership, 1547 has successfully completed sixteen data center acquisitions across eight U.S. states and Canada, deploying approximately $1.2 billion to acquire and develop assets comprising approximately 1.95 million square feet and 219 Megawatts of power. With his expertise, strategic vision, and unwavering dedication to excellence, Mr. Welp continues to lead his Dallas-based team in their commitment to building a portfolio of world-class data center assets, driving the continued growth and success of 1547. Prior to founding 1547, Mr. Welp established Oak Star Partners, a consulting firm that specialized in supporting alternative investment management firms in structuring their investment offerings and raising capital. Earlier in his career, he held executive positions in both boutique and major investment management firms, such as Henderson Global, AIM Investments, and Enterprise Capital Management, where he primarily worked in investment sales. Through his extensive network, he secured over $4 billion for investment opportunities across various asset classes, including technology and real estate. Mr. Welp graduated from Creighton University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of ColoHouse, LLC, a national provider of colocation, cloud, managed and bare metal services.

  fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty

  Co-Founder & Managing Partner

  Corey Welp

  Co-Founder & Managing Partner

  fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty

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  Brian Tormey

  As President for TitleVest and New York State Manager for First American Title, Brian is involved in strategic planning, execution, and oversight of operational projects, business development, as well as technology creation and deployment. Brian handles client inquiries and provides subject-matter expertise for complex transactions such as, sale-leasebacks, development right transfers, 1031's, defeasance, multi-site/multi-state portfolios, and other residential and commercial matters. With over twenty years of experience in real estate and title insurance Brian has leveraged his knowledge to develop the cutting-edge technology and business practices behind the critically-acclaimed TitleVest proprietary systems. During his 20- year tenure with TitleVest, he has helped to structure and/or oversee the closing of over fifty billion in real estate transactions for leading lenders, investment banks, developers, REITs, and other real estate investors throughout the United States. Under his leadership TitleVest has been awarded Best Title Agency ten years running in the New York Law Journal and also Best Title Company the past two years in the National Law Journal.

  TitleVest

  President

  Moderator

  Brian Tormey

  President

  TitleVest

Development, Design and Construction:

Building To Meet Today’s Demands And Dynamic Needs

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  Stephen Copeland

  Partner

  AKF, a member of WSP

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  John Hawkins

  John Hawkins is the IBM Global Data Center Strategy and Planning Lead. John brings over 20 years and $3B of leasing experience in the data center and commercial real estate fields. John is best known for his work at Telx, where he was the Director of Global Real Estate & Data Center Expansions. During his years at Telx, John expanded the data center portfolio over seven hundred percent and negotiated over $1B+ in leases, leading to the acquisition of Telx by Digital Realty for $1.9 billion. Prior to Telx, John was Vice President of Real Estate and Data Center Logistics at Exenet Technologies, where he was responsible for the complete ownership of a multi-country facility build-out. Earlier in his career, John was Vice President of International Operations & Real Estate at The Matlen Silver Group, where he opened operations in India and Trinidad. John earned his Masters of Real Estate at New York University and lives with his wife in North Branch, NJ

  IBM

  Global Cloud Data Center Real Estate Lead

  John Hawkins

  Global Cloud Data Center Real Estate Lead

  IBM

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  Ryan Mallory

  As President and Chief Operating Officer for Flexential, Ryan leads the company's internal day-to-day operations across all company functions, ensures the growth of the technology platform, and drives strategic execution. Since joining Flexential in 2020, Ryan has played a key role in scaling the company’s national platform of 40+ data centers and a 100Gbps private network backbone. His leadership has helped advance the FlexAnywhere® Platform—a unified infrastructure solution supporting colocation, interconnection, cloud, and managed services—to meet growing enterprise demand for secure, high-density deployments. With more than 25 years of experience in global infrastructure operations, Ryan has held leadership roles at UUNET, SAVVIS, XO Communications, Digital Realty, and Equinix. Before Flexential, he served as SVP of Global Solutions Enablement at Equinix, where he worked across network, platform, and sales functions to support customer and business growth worldwide. Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in international business from the University of Phoenix.

  Flexential

  President & COO

  Ryan Mallory

  President & COO

  Flexential

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  Jamie Sweigart

  Jamie started his career in precast concrete at High Concrete Group over 23 years ago. He earned an Associates' Degree from York Technical Institute and furthered his education by earning a BS in Business from Albright College. He enjoys working with precast concrete because it is the most versatile product in the world. Precast concrete has the ability to turn your design dreams into a reality. When Jamie is not working, he can be found on the golf course or spending time with his son.

  High Concrete Group

  Director

  Jamie Sweigart

  Director

  High Concrete Group

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  Ilissa Miller

  As founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations (iMPR), Ilissa Miller brings nearly two decades of experience in sales, marketing and product development to her clients in an effort to help them differentiate their messages and achieve notoriety within an ever expanding and evolving industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge in the emerging global telecommunications and technology industries, her extensive expertise and practical skill set have allowed her to implement and spearhead and launch many companies as well as global product and marketing campaigns including that of international private line and networks, IP transit, peering, IPVPN, hosted PBX, cloud computing, Ethernet, managed services, colocation and data center products and solutions. She is a recognized leader in the global telecom and technology space where her knowledge and insights provide strategic guidance that enhance performance resulting in a remarkable reputation for effectiveness and client satisfaction.

  iMiller Public Relations

  Founder & CEO

  Moderator

  Ilissa Miller

  Founder & CEO

  iMiller Public Relations

Data Center Operations, Engineering and Cooling:

Leveraging New Tools, Technologies and Protocols To Do More, For Longer

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  Arno van Gennip

  VP, Global IBX Operations Engineering

  Equinix

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  Sudhir Kalra

  Sudhir Kalra serves as Compass’ EVP of Global Operations. Prior to joining Compass, Mr. Kalra served as Executive Director, Global Head of Enterprise Data Centers for Morgan Stanley. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Sudhir was Director, Corporate Real Estate and Services – Global Head of Engineering and Critical Systems at Deutsche Bank where he was responsible for mission-critical support of a real estate portfolio comprised of over 30 million square feet. Mr. Kalra began his career in technical roles at Securities Industry Automation Corporation supporting mission-critical operations for the NYSE and American Stock Exchange. Sudhir holds a BEEE from City University of NY and an MSEE from NYU-Poly University.

  Compass Datacenters

  Executive VP, Global Operations

  Sudhir Kalra

  Executive VP, Global Operations

  Compass Datacenters

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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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  Joseph Liccardo

  Joe is a degreed Mechanical Engineer and the CoreSite Vice President of Data Center Field Operations with over 12 years of experience in the Data Center and mission critical operations industry. He was at one time a CoreSite customer and has been with the company for 3 years previously serving as the Sr. Director of Data Center Operations in the NY, BO, and MI Markets.

  CoreSite

  VP, Data Center Field Operations

  Joseph Liccardo

  VP, Data Center Field Operations

  CoreSite

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  Jim McDonald

  As a Co-founder in 1992, and currently the Director of Environmental Impact at MIRATECH Corporation, Jim provides leadership, strategy and product design expertise for their Power Generation division. Jim rejoined Miratech Corporation in 2019 heading up the ENP Concepts consulting arm after management positions at Rypos Corporation and leading the environmental department at PowerSecure’s microgrid group. In charge of tracking all Federal, State and Local emissions regulations as they pertain to backup generators located at Datacenters in North America and Europe, he ensures MIRATECH’s products and services offer ongoing compliance. Mr. McDonald has testified before the Federal EPA numerous times and is considered a valuable stakeholder on several rulemaking teams at the State Level. For 15 years he has been an instructor for the Advanced School of the Electrical Generating Systems Association on the subject of Emissions from Diesel engines and has authored the textbook chapter on the same. He has a Patent Pending on the use of wire mesh DPF substrates in the pre-heating of SCR catalyst blocks. As the originator of the ‘GVU’ measurement parameter, Jim performs analyses to show the relative comparison on Ultraclean diesel generators versus grid supplied power. As such he advocates for the environmentally justifiable use of stationary generators until emerging renewable technologies are proven and cost effective. Jim holds a B.S in mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware.

  MIRATECH Corporation

  Founder & Director, ENP Consultants, A Miratech Group

  Moderator

  Jim McDonald

  Founder & Director, ENP Consultants, A Miratech Group

  MIRATECH Corporation