Lifetime of Achievement: John Eland, CEO at STACK EMEA
STACK Infrastructure is one of the world’s most sustainable data centre companies, known for achieving 100% renewable energy across its data centre portfolio and designing facilities to achieve high efficiency with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.3 or lower.
“STACK has made environmental responsibility within our operational communities a cornerstone of our growth strategy,” shares John Eland, CEO at STACK EMEA. “Our dedication to sustainable practices and obtaining green financing empowers STACK to expedite and fulfil our ESG initiatives.”
John is focused on growing sustainable operations across the company, in addition to his team.
“We want the best minds and individuals that fit the culture we're trying to cultivate. We’ve seen time and time again that those can come from outside the sector as well as within,” said John.
He is keen to harness the best from the full spectrum of sectors, from different backgrounds and at different stages of life, over at STACK.
From international business to data centre leadership
Before joining Stack Infrastructure, John accumulated years of knowledge and experience in business and data centre management.
John Eland studied International Business Studies at Northumbria University, 1994 - 1999, including a year at École Supérieure de Commerce Et de Management in 1997. He started out in business at Verizon where he worked in Sales before becoming a Partner Channel at Virgin Media in 2004.
From 2000 to 2005, the worldwide electricity use for data centres doubled, due to an increase in the number of servers. There was a rise in hyperscale data centres, driven by the demand for cloud services.
In 2008, John became CEO Data City Exchange, where he would custom, design and build, modular data centre solution called Evo-POD™, a secure, flexible, standalone data centre featuring an award winning design and scalable cooling solution.
John went on to work at the largest real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe, AXA Investment Managers, from 2014 to 2017. There, he led the data centre investment programme at AXA IM Real Assets, investing in the sector through many channels such as new data centre development, acquisition of existing data centre real estate assets and equity investments into operating data centre platforms.
At e-shelter, one of the leading data centre operators in Europe, John worked as Senior Vice President Strategy & Development, where he had a key focus on international expansion into new markets via Merger & Acquisitions, Joint Ventures and Development Projects.
Following this, John spent three years at NTT DATA, as Chief Strategy Officer.
“I led Strategy & Corporate Development for the Global Data Centers division of NTT Ltd. I had a primary focus on our continued expansion and investment strategy, both in existing and new markets, via M&A, Joint Ventures, Strategic Partnerships and Development Projects. I was also responsible for Transactions & Underwriting and Strategy Research/Market Intelligence.”
It was during this time that STACK Infrastructure was founded. The digital infrastructure partner provides digital infrastructure to scale the world’s most innovative companies. STACK offers a range of campus, build-to-suit, colocation and powered shell solutions for the Americas, EMEA and APAC. STACK also provides the scale needed by hyperscale and enterprise companies.
John Eland's vision for STACK Infrastructure
In 2024, Eland has over two decades of experience with which he leads his team, with the core values instilled in him by his family - honesty, integrity, loyalty and humility, in addition to encouraging ambition and challenge.
Upon his appointment, John said that he had been impressed by STACK’s accelerating momentum, both globally and in Europe, where STACK has created a strong operating platform.
“I look forward to driving continued growth across the EMEA region and further strengthening STACK’s market position as a trusted global digital infrastructure partner with significant resources, capacity and development expertise,” he shared. "Data centres are the backbone of digital innovation and we believe the sector offers vibrant and dynamic career opportunities for ambitious individuals from an array of backgrounds.”
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