SPEAKER bios
We are proud to host such a wide array of industry speakers at DCME VIRTUAL Spring 2021 International Conference & Exhibition.
All confirmed speakers are detailed further down this page (in surname alphabetical order).
With over 25 years of experience in the Data Centre sector industry Mark has been a specialist in the field of Data Centre Operations for over 20 years, concentrating on the delivery of business critical services from highly reliable, world class Data Centres having 24×365 availability expectations.
A Technical Operations Manager with extensive international experience and solid technical skills covering Data Centre Facilities Design, IT and Facilities Operational Management with Technical Consulting. Regular public speaker, conference host and industry advisor on data centre technical issues as well as being involved in International (ISO) data centre Standards development.
Serving as director of supply chain and procurement at Vantage Data Centers, Marynet Bassily oversees all aspects of procurement for designers, construction and equipment throughout Europe. As a procurement and commercial management expert with more than 16 years of experience in the construction industry, Marynet is essential in expanding Vantage’s strategic sourcing applications and supplier relationships.
Prior to joining Vantage, Marynet served as the global head of strategic sourcing and supplier relationship management at Colt Datacentre Services where she was responsible for establishing partnerships with key vendors and developing global frameworks for long-lead asset procurement and the company’s renewable energy sustainability program. Before Colt Datacentre Services, Marynet served as the commercial and procurement manager at London Underground (LU) where she was responsible for developing the commercial strategy, procurement and post contract management of the Step-Free Access Scheme, a unique 10-year program aimed at increasing accessibility across the LU network.
Marynet received her Master of Science in project management in construction from Brighton University in the U.K. She earned a Bachelor of Science in construction engineering and management with a minor in business administration at American University in Cairo. In addition, she has a Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification.
Marynet is a member of Vantage’s Women’s Leadership Forum and a member of Vantage’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Council. She also serves as a mentor for various young female professionals looking to grow their professional careers within the construction and procurement industries.
Steve Bowes-Phipps has over 25 years of operational systems management experience. From managing Financial Services Data Centres and IT operations in the UK and Ireland, he joined ambitious web hosting company GlobalCenter who were expanding from the US into Europe. Sitting on the senior management team, he oversaw the building of five Internet Data Centres in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris until Exodus Internet bought the company in 2001. There, moved into a more strategic role, dealing with blue chip customer issues and relationship management, process improvement and building a culture of continuous improvement.
Spent four years in Visa Europe managing strategically important projects and processes. In 2007, joined his Alma Mater, Hertfordshire University, to become their Head of Data Centres and worked with the UK’s Higher and Further Education IT funding arm, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), to assist in embedding Green IT in UK HE and FE institutions, and throughout the EU. In 2010, the University of Hertfordshire became the first European university to comply with the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres and has won in categories at the European Datacentre Leaders Awards 2010, the Uptime Institute Green Enterprise IT (GEIT™) 2011 and the EAUC Green Gown Awards 2011.
Steve joined PTS Consulting as their Senior Consultant on Data Centres in January 2015 and has presented at many conferences at home and abroad on reducing DC investment risk, Best Practices in Green IT and exemplar case studies. He represents PTS on the Board of Advisors of the Data Centre Alliance and is also involved in various industry bodies forming new international standards and metrics for IT and Data Centre efficiency.
Russell Bulley started as an apprentice electrician, rising through industrial electrical systems and engineering management. With a short spell in research and chip manufacturing, was followed by an extensive period within the UPS and M&E world of critical services.
Well versed in the electrical and mechanical demands of exacting clients around the world, both from a service and supply aspect within old and new data centres. Russell comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience.
Mr. de Frémery has over twenty years of experience in the global telecommunications and data centre sector. He started his career in Amsterdam where he held legal, product management and sales related positions at AT&T- Unisource (a joint venture between AT&T, KPN, Telia and Swisscom).
In 2000, Frank moved to New York to work at Global Crossing as Director Strategic Network Expansion focusing on expanding the firm’s IP network around the world.
At the end of 2005, Mr. de Frémery relocated back to the Netherlands to work as VP Sales and Business Development for Linxtelecom / Datacenter, an international telecommunications and data centre provider focusing on connectivity and datacentre services in Eastern-Europe. In 2012, he moved to Curaçao as Chief Commercial Officer at the Curaçao Technology Exchange, and in 2014 became CEO of TRES Networks, a Curaçao-based operator and licensed distributor of digital television and entertainment services providing residential and business customers with high-speed internet, voice and digital video services (“Triple Play”) over the island's first fibre-to-the-home (“FTTH”) network.
After TRES Networks was sold to the Digicel Group in October 2016 Frank returned to the Netherlands to head up AC Niellsen Data Centres which is an independent boutique data centre advisory practice with the principal focus to provide strategic advice and real estate services for data centres to occupiers, investors and operators. (Site selection, Sale/leaseback, Acquisition, Greenfield)
Frank holds a Master's Degree in Law from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Alexander is responsible for technical design, pre-sales support and purchasing for new data centres projects. During the recent expansions at Green Mountain's DC1 data centre, he was responsible for purchasing the infrastructure.
Alexander has 25 years of experience from the IT industry, the last 12 years, primarily focusing on data centres. When he is not working, hunting and outdoor life is his passion.
Since joining Vertiv nearly 5 years ago, Victor has developed his career where he started as a pre-sales engineer. Now, Victor’s role as Key Account Manager sees him closely working with customers as a technical advisor of the full range of Vertiv solutions, listening to clients requirements and providing technology to meet their energy efficiency and sustainability targets.
Victor is based in Stockhom, Sweden and holds a Master's Degree in Sustainable Energy Systems from Mälardalen University.
Jonathan is responsible for supporting new opportunities for Trend in the UK Data Centre market. He works with a wide range of clients including consultants, contractors and end users, specialising in the Data Centre vertical.
Jonathan is based in High Wycombe and is currently studying his Technology MBA at Durham University on a part time basis.
Bill has over 20 years of financial services and enterprise experience in a variety of strategy, sales and marketing roles at Tibco Inc, Thomson Reuters and Interxion.
Before taking up his current VP Enterprise position in September 2017, Bill led the Financial Services segment at Interxion. At Thomson Reuters, Bill drove business development for Elektron Managed Services, where he drew on his successful track record in developing and marketing services for low latency data feeds and colocation, data distribution platforms and managed services in the global marketplace.
Prior to starting in the financial services industry, Bill was a lecturer at the University of Vienna and held a post-doctoral post at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Bill holds a PhD from University of Vienna, an MA from Webster University in Vienna and a BA from UCLA.
Based in Denmark, Emma leads the Arup sustainability advisory services across Scandinavia from Copenhagen. She has a background in environmental science and has been working for the past 10 years within engineering consultancies developing and designing sustainability implementation plans and strategies across the built environment.
Emma guides our clients to increase their sustainability performance on projects. She identifies drivers for change through horizon scanning, establishes key material issues for a client and develops bespoke strategies, utilising and applying global reporting frameworks. Most recently she has been working with global data centre operators to explore the application of circular economy principles and identify key opportunities for adapting existing business models – driving the transition from liner to circular systems.
A self-proclaimed “tech junkie” Tom has been working in the IT sector for over 25 years, starting out with software application and technology layers such as machine learning, early day AI, business rules and algorithmic trading platforms before progressing to TCM and core banking applications. In 2009 he was lured to the dark side of data centres by David Ruberg with the role of leading Interxion’s international business development where during his tenure he and the team grew the business and share price by over 300%.
During the last 10 years Tom has overseen and steered data centre transactions worth over $1bn of value and has worked with occupiers, hyperscalers, developers, landowners, governments and institutional investors.
In his current role at JLL he is leading their EMEA data centre transactional business line. In a recent poll that he ran he noted that sustainability in the data centre arena was the #1 challenge with resource (human capital) a close second. Tom believes that the data centre community has a responsibility to ensure quality data centre products are combined with best practices in achieving sustainability and also in bringing into the sector as many “tech junkies” as possible. The digital economy is not growing, it’s exploding, and data centres are the rock bed foundation needed to support this.
Michael manages a global team at Akamai technologies that specialises in CDN delivery performance and edge computing. His mission is to help build a safe and fast internet for all to enjoy. By working with Akamai customers large and small he helps make sure they have the most innovative and best performing web applications which leads to better SEO rankings, conversions and user engagement. Michael has recently started to explore the impact better performance practices can have on sustainability.
Richard Govier is the Technical Director of Socomec U.K. Limited. He has a BSc(Hons) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from University College, Cardiff as well as a PhD in the application of microprocessors in control of computer networks. He is a Chartered engineer (CEng MIET) and is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Prior to joining Socomec, Richard worked for Panduit/Unite managing its power product line and more recently as Senior Manager Global Operations for the Intelligent Managed Serviced (IMS) Business Unit. Before that he worked in a variety of R&D, consultancy, operational and technical director roles.
David is part of the Office of the CTO looking to accelerate innovation at Equinix. Working in the data centre industry for more than 17 years; he has held a variety of roles from commercial strategy to technology innovation; working extensively with some of the world's largest platforms.
Geoff has a Higher National Diploma in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (1981) and a Diploma in Management. Geoff has spent almost all of his entire working life (40+ years) in the critical power sector / market, including 24 years in UPS and 16 years in standby diesel generation. In that time he has held a number of roles from customer service engineer, project management, Technical Director, Managing Director to Sales Director. His experience is wide ranging covering many different market sectors; Data Centres of all sizes, Health Care, Life Science, Banking and Finance, Military, Local and Central Government, Manufacturing, Process control and Water Treatment.
Since leaving the Royal Air Force in 1980, Mike has been working in the field of data centre cooling, for three major manufacturers. A good grounding under the auspices of Ray Eaton-Williams was followed by a ten-year period as technical manager with Liebert, which then led to the position of Engineering Director at Denco, which is now part of the FläktGroup.
A spell in research and development early on in his career fostered a keen interest in both psychrometrics and thermodynamics, and also allowed him to develop and apply his knowledge of aerodynamics and fluid flow. A member of CIBSE, he participated in a joint venture with BSRIA to produce an authoritative guide to Data Centre cooling, and remains involved with further long term projects based around emerging technologies.
With a passion for reducing energy consumption, a further assignment involved working with the design team briefed to produce a new, highly energy efficient range of cooling equipment. The result can now be seen in many IT facilities around the world, as the successful Multi DENCO, Adia DENCO and Hydro DENCO ranges, which are currently manufactured in both Europe and in Asia.
Mike is currently working on cooling solutions for continuously increasing heat load densities, and the application of alternative refrigeration technologies to machine room cooling. Any spare time is also spent studying fluid dynamics, but in a different role as a gliding instructor, exploring both thermal currents and lee waves frequently encountered downwind of the Welsh mountains!
Having worked in exhibition & sponsorship sales for many years (first in telecoms followed by datacoms) Caroline launched the information portal www.datacentre.me in December 2011. The site lists a free online directory, news page, reports, white papers, case studies and a host of other useful information.
In September 2013 Caroline expanded her business portfolio by launching a series of high level networking events aimed at senior management within the data centre sector. These events were designed specifically for decision makers and influencers within end user organisations and are by invitation only. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the now infamous quarterly networking evenings were held in central London on a quarterly basis. The team had just ventured out of the UK for the first time with a very well-received end user networking event in Dublin in November 2019.
Additionally, since 2016 Caroline and the DCME team have been running a hugely successful annual charity Christmas party for the industry, having raised well over £10,000 to date for worthy charities including as Alzheimer’s Society, Cancer Research UK and Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.
Obviously 2020 & 2021 have proved extremely challenging to everyone. COVID-19 has put paid to the DCME face to face events for the moment so Caroline and her team decided to adapt and bring you some fantastic virtual conferences and exhibitions instead, which they hope will become a mainstay in the DCME events calendar. Time will tell!
Paul (or ‘Hoody’ as he’s known to friends) heads up Yondr’s business across EMEA. With 30+ years’ experience in engineering operations globally, Hoody provides strategic leadership in the planning and delivery of asset operations, whilst driving operational excellence and security best practice across our global portfolio.
Hoody joined from Pure Data Centres Group, where he was Global Head of Operations. Before Pure, he was Head of Engineering Operations EME at Barclays, responsible for 2,500 properties / 22 million sq ft, including three core enterprise data centres, multiple trading floors and the corporate headquarters. At Barclays Global Retail Bank, he ran a portfolio of c.6,000 properties across 36 million sq ft of floor space and implemented a global standard for best practice in mechanical, electrical and controls engineering.
In earlier years Hoody was VP Head of Engineering operations EMEA for JPMorgan, having responsibility for the entire portfolio across the region.
Paul has won two Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) awards for innovation and design.
Sanjay is the Global Senior Vice-President of Business Development and Global Chief Technology Officer for Data Center Solutions for the Digital Energy Business Unit of Huawei Technologies.
In his role, he is responsible for world-wide Business Development and driving innovation & strategy for the Data Center & Mission Critical business solutions.
Sanjay has more than 30 years of experience in Leadership roles, Business Development and Start-ups across US, Middle-East & Asia Pacific Markets.
He is a recognized “Trusted Advisor” to many customers, partners and influencers.
Iain is a Chartered Building Services Engineer (CIBSE) with over 20 years’ experience in the MEP industry and has a wide range of experience in the sustainability & MEP design of hospitality, commercial office, healthcare, education, retail, residential, aviation and data centre projects.
Iain has delivered multiple projects as a team leader and key account manager as well as having responsibility for MEP design, sustainability, marketing, bidding, client care and business development.
In his capacity as Head of Sustainability Solutions & Climate Change at RED, Iain is responsible for developing a market strategy suitable to the RED business model, its brand and its global business strategy as we move towards a zero–carbon future.
Eddie is an architect with over three decades of experience in the sectors of data centres, logistics, retail and workplace. He joined Hyphen (then known as Househam Henderson) in 1992, spending five years establishing and leading the practice’s Berlin office. By the late 1990s Hyphen was heavily involved in supporting the European expansion of US telcos, which led to Hyphen opening offices in Madrid and Paris.
Eddie was appointed as Hyphen’s CEO in 2015 and has continued to grow the business into a pan-European Architecture group which now works extensively across the EMEA region. As well as his UK profession registration, Eddie is a member of both the Architektenkammer Berlin and L’Ordre d’Architectes Île-de-France. As an author, Eddie is a contributing author to the forthcoming 7th Edition of The Metric Handbook and his book Contemporary Retail Design – A Store Planner’s Handbook will be published by The Crowood Press in late spring this year.
Whilst the nature of data centre projects has evolved over the past quarter century, Eddie remains a passionate advocate for the role of the architect in the DC team and their ability to positively influence design.
Mark Monroe is a Principal Engineer in Microsoft’s Datacenter Advanced Development group working on future systems for energy, water conservation, and automation. He is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, with a focus on change acceleration in corporate settings. Mark led industry consortium including Infrastructure Masons and The Green Grid, and served on the board of directors for the Center for ReSource Conservation in Boulder, CO. He has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech.
Chris is responsible for operations and customer relations for Bouygues Energies & Services and its data centres projects.
With over 25 years of experience working with the company, Chris is a veteran of Bouygues Energies & Services. Working across a wide range of markets including Pharmaceutical, Industrial and Data Centres, Chris has a proven track record for leading and building successful projects with an inherited passion for quality, excellence and customer satisfaction.
With a lead from the front mentality and client focused, Chris oversees the build phases of data centre projects implementing outstanding delivery strategies from design through to build and commissioning to handover while ensuring a top-down culture of Health & Safety. Chris also supports Bouygues Energies & Services development of future business opportunities and helps shape the company business strategy of the data centres market.
Martin Murphy is the Global COO within CBRE’s Data Centre Solutions Group. An accomplished leader with global experience in managing complex facilities for major clients. As the leader of our business, Martin ensures the team, solution and process are bespoke to each client.
Martin worked for Orange Communication in an operational and project role from 2000 – 2007. He then joined AMS Ltd, a PM and Consultancy organisation focused on the DC and Telco space until 2010. During this time he spent 7 months with CSC as head of Data Centres for EMEA, he then joined GWS in 2010 (formally JCI) and has continually been a top performer for the company. Martin comes from an M&E background and has over 20 years’ experience in consulting, project management and operations within data centres.
Martin is a member of the Institute of Engineering
Theresa is a Global Talent Acquisition Leader with a demonstrable track record of developing & implementing creative and highly successful talent strategies in fast paced, high growth environments with a particular focus on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. With a background in engineering recruitment & executive search, Theresa joined CBRE in 2013 to help establish an in house TA function in the UK before moving into the role of Global TA Lead for CBRE’s Data Centre Solutions business in 2016. Since 2016 CBRE’s Data Centre Solutions business has experienced exceptional growth globally and Theresa works closely with the global leadership team to ensure CBRE stays one step ahead in the race for talent!
For more than a decade I have been working within the fire safety sector, specialising in high pressure water mist. I have worked for the UK Government in a fire safety role, worked for a turnkey installation company and now take pleasure representing such a strong brand in Danfoss. I have consolidated my expertise and been involved with hundreds of fire safety projects for industrial and commercial buildings, and specifically critical infrastructure projects.
Pasha Ponomarev leads Accenture’s Sustainability Business in North America. He focuses on advising client executives on a wide range of topics. Pasha's work across Circular Economy allows companies to upgrade from linear “Take. Make. Waste” cycle to a more profitable and responsible closed loop business models. Pasha's Sustainable Technology expertise examines the tremendous potential that applications of disruptive innovations across Digital, Physical and Biological systems can have on environmental sustainability and social responsibility when deployed strategically across the business. Pasha has over 15 years of strategy consulting experience that spans US, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Middle East. He holds a degree in Physics from California Polytechnic University.
Adam Pool is a Regional Sales Manager at Xtralis.
Xtralis is the leading global provider of innovative solutions for the very early & reliable detection allowing rapid and effective response to smoke, fire, and gas threats. Xtralis’ technologies prevent disasters by giving users time to respond before life, critical infrastructure or business continuity is compromised. Xtralis is the manufacturer of VESDA® which is the world’s most advanced Aspirating Smoke Detector (ASD).
Adam has worked for Xtralis for over 22 years. He has held several roles in Sales, from Sales & Technical support for EMEA to Sales Lead for a large part of Northern Europe and Middle East. Adam has a wealth of Fire knowledge throughout the entire industry.
Adam has been promoting VESDA® in the UK, dealing with Fire System Contractors, Consultants, Specifiers and End-users. He is involved with the FIA group that is currently writing a guide on smoke detection in high airflow applications. He regularly conducts CPDs on ASD promoting the use of the technology. He contributes to writing specifications for ASD in DC applications.
In his role as Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Matt is responsible for driving the growth of CyrusOne’s operations in Europe and delivering the very best in data centre excellence to CyrusOne’s hyperscale and enterprise customers worldwide.
Matt oversees regional business strategy and an experienced European Management Team to deliver upon site selection, construction, design, operations, finance, HR, legal, sales and marketing across an operational and development portfolio with an IT power capacity of more than 200 MW in London, Frankfurt, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris.
Since joining CyrusOne in August 2018 Matt has been pivotal in authenticating the CyrusOne brand in Europe and deploying significant capital across the new development portfolio; more than doubling the European footprint and diversifying the customer base.
Matt joined CyrusOne following its acquisition of Zenium Data Centers where he was Managing Director and a founding member. Prior to Zenium, he was an Executive Director at CBRE, leading the Corporate Outsourcing function in EMEA.
Matt has extensive relationships in the corporate community and a unique understanding of the property investment dynamics of data centres. He is a committed and regular contributor to industry thought leadership through participation in industry forums.
Effective partnership and a commitment to a sustainable future is fundamental to CyrusOne’s growth strategy in Europe. Matt is honoured to sit on the European Data Center Association’s (EUDCA) Board of Directors and to be a member of techUK’s Data Center Council. He is committed to strengthening relationships with key policy stakeholders and elevating standards for best practice in the data centre industry across Europe; offering his experience, support and leadership to educate and encourage best practice in data centre policy in Europe and around the world.
After starting serving a three-year apprenticeship as a carpenter and joiner, James worked on developing the manufacturing and fitting process for glass reinforced plastic doors and frames for housing projects. Moving from there into management of construction activities running major repairs and new build construction for a major landlord, he pioneered the use modular and off site manufacture of housing in the late 1990's.
Following a move to South East Asia in 2003 he became involved in the mission critical industry carrying out a wide variety of projects across the IT, MEP, Electrical and constructional aspects of data centres; running mission critical projects in 14 different countries across three different continents.
After a return to the UK, James joined Arcadis in early 2019 and from then has taken an active part in the delivery of mission critical projects within EMU, primarily as Campus Lead on site in the ‘Buckingham' account.
Building on the good work of the previous CoP leaders, James will bring an international flavour to the CoP in 2021, ensuring engagement with mission critical Arcadians around the globe. In addition to organising presentations to the CoP from industry leaders both inside and outside Arcadis.
“I hope we can manage to make this CoP both repository of knowledge and exchange, ensuring we align closely with the ‘Maximising Impact' strategy for the next period.”
Having spent many years working in the fire engineering sector, I have developed a strong understanding of how best to solve client’s fire safety needs. I am involved in the design and specification of all types of Life Safety Systems including Fire Alarm and Fire Detection Systems. I have extensive experience working within both the public and private sector, with clients ranging from data centres, councils, MOD sites, housing associations, hospitals, and commercial clients, through to consultants, main contractors, and facilities management companies.
Mark is a Chartered Engineer and Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Designer. He holds CIBSE and IET fellowships and has over 30 years of experience in the building services industry.
Mark has been designing data centres for almost 20 years and leads project teams that design colocation and hyperscale data centres across EMEA.
Mr. Vincent applies germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) cleansing technology and tools to control the transmission of tuberculosis and in high-risk settings. He was the project manager and UV lighting specialist for the Tuberculosis Ultraviolet Shelter Study (TUSS), (1997-2004). TUSS—a multidisciplinary, multicenter epidemiological field trial of ultraviolet air cleansing effectiveness formed by St. Vincent’s Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) advanced UVGI application for airborne disease control in homeless shelters.
At the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, he is working on reducing the rate of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), by benchmarking the efficacy of various technologies including: mobile, whole-room UVC devices for decontamination of surfaces from pathogens such as MRSA, and C. Difficile. Since 2008 he has been on faculty at the Harvard Course: Building Design and Engineering to Prevent Airborne Infection – An International Approach. He has taught a shortened course in Pretoria, South Africa and Mumbai and New Delhi, India. He has provided technical assistance on GUV projects in India, Myanmar and Pakistan. Since 2016, Mr. Vincent serves at the Coordinator for the StopTB Partnership working Group: End TB Transmission Initiative (ETTI). He provided expert input on GUV for the WHO Guidelines on tuberculosis infection prevention and control, 2019 update. Mr. Vincent is the chair of the ASHRAE GCP 37 developing guidelines for the application of upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation systems (UVGI/GUV). He chairs the CIE TC 6-52 to test upper room GUV fixtures.