The State of the Data Center Market: The C-Suite Operator Deep Dive

As Chief Executive Officer, Brian Cox ensures that STACK offers a compelling and seamless solution to its clients. He has experience with almost every challenge encountered in the industry, bringing an understanding of growth patterns of businesses of all sizes. Brian’s career has focused on building companies by positioning them to win and maintain client trust. He was most recently Chief Operating Officer of Cologix, a global data center and interconnection solutions provider. At Cologix, he was responsible for critical infrastructure, development, and commercial management, growing the business from a startup with one data center into an international platform with 25 data centers across the U.S. and Canada. He also served as Chief Financial Officer at Cologix and prior to Cologix, was Chief Financial Officer at i-transfer, a global financial technology company. Brian received an MBA from the University of Colorado and a BBA in Finance and Accounting from Texas Christian University. He is a former officer in the U.S. Military.

Arman Khalili is a Board Member of Evocative and brings with him over 25 years of experience in Internet Infrastructure industry. Prior to joining the company, Arman served as a Principal at Industry Capital a real assets based private equity firm in San Francisco. He was the founder and CEO of CentralColo also known as Element Critical. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Black Lotus, a leader in DDoS mitigation company, which was acquired by Level 3, and was the Founder/CEO of UnitedLayer, the largest privately held colocation provider in San Francisco. He was the founder of Sirius – one of the first ISPs in Silicon Valley, as well as the Co-founder and CTO of MusicBank, the first music subscription company. He has held numerous senior consulting positions at Level3, AT&T and Apple Computers.

Raul Martynek joined DataBank in June of 2017 as the Chief Executive Officer. In this role, he provides overall strategic direction of the company and its operations. Raul is a 25+ year veteran in the telecom and Internet Infrastructure sector. He most recently served as a Senior Advisor for Digital Bridge Holdings LLC. Prior to Digital Bridge, he served as Chief Executive Officer for New Jersey-based data center and managed services operator Net Access, LLC. Net Access was acquired in November 2015 by Denver-based data center operator Cologix. Prior to Net Access, he was the CEO of Voxel dot Net, Inc., a global managed hosting and cloud company, which was acquired by Internap Network Services Corp. in early 2012. Mr. Martynek also served as the Chief Restructuring Officer of Smart Telecom, a Dublin, Ireland-based fiber carrier which was acquired by Digiweb in 2009. Before that he evaluated investment opportunities in the telecommunications and Internet sector as a Senior Advisor at Plainfield Asset Management, a $4B hedge fund. Prior to Plainfield, Mr. Martynek spent 13 years with telecom and Internet provider InfoHighway Communications Corp; first as a Chief Operating Officer of Eureka Networks and then as President and Chief Executive Officer of InfoHighway. InfoHighway was acquired by Broadview Networks in 2007. Mr. Martynek earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Binghamton University and received a Master Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.

Mike has more than 30 years of sophisticated and broad-based real estate experience representing clients in buying, selling, developing, leasing and financing real estate assets in all asset classes. Since 2010, he has been at the forefront of the expanding, multi-disciplinary data center, digital infrastructure and IT commercial contracting fields that straddle real estate and technology. Mike was named the 2023 Lawyer of the Year in Chicago for Privacy and Data Security Law by Best Lawyers. He is in-demand for presentations at digital infrastructure conferences and is often quoted in trade periodicals. Mike's clients include insurance companies, Fortune 500 companies, pension funds, investment advisers, enterprise companies, financial institutions, real estate developers, high-tech companies and data center developers/providers. His recent transactions include representing multiple platform data center companies in acquiring land for development, developing data centers and entering into leases and master services agreements with major technology companies; acquiring operating data centers for private equity-backed real estate and technology funds; representing a financial services client in the outsourcing of all of its legacy IT infrastructure supporting its banking operations and applications, including mission-critical banking applications; negotiating joint venture agreements related to the development of data centers and multi-family developments; and representing a real estate investment company in the sale of a carrier hotel/data center in a major US market.

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.