Lifetime of Achievement: William “Bill” Barney
As data centre demand continues to swell, William “Bill” Barney remains at the centre of innovation.
A strong advocate for regulatory and industry change and a major proponent of cloud computing and open networks, Bill is an investor, board member and CEO within the data centre industry. He has a career that spans more than 25 years, primarily across Asia, and has assembled and managed some of the strongest-performing teams within the region.
Having worked across the telecom and technology sectors for a number of years, Bill has remained a consistent advocate within the industry. He regularly attends industry meetings and major conferences, including the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) and CommunicAsia, in addition to sitting on the board or in advisory positions for several notable data centre organisations.
Capitalising on the Post-COVID boom
It is no secret that the technology industry exploded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with innovation reaching new heights and data centres being stretched like never before.
Speaking in the immediate wake of the pandemic, Bill said: “We’ve not seen demand like this ever. [Data centre] infrastructure is finally being tested and for the first time I think we might have demand outstripping supply in a lot of markets.”
“Moving forward in this post-COVID era, we hope to find ways to “change people’s worlds” by creating an even more dynamic tech and telecom conference,” Bill said in 2023 after he was appointed President and Chair of the Board of Governors.
Bill has been strongly committed to the Asian connectivity market for a number of years, helping to facilitate further growth in the region. He spent six years as chairman and CEO of Indian operator Reliance Communications (RCom) and of GCX, then a subsidiary, in addition to spending ten years as the CEO of Pacnet, a company later acquired by Telstra.
With an extensive background in subsea cabling, Bill then moved towards the data centre industry. He founded edge infrastructure company Turbidite in 2021, working as founder and CEO of the company. The company focuses on the development of a wide network of international-standard edge data centres across multiple countries within the Asia-Pacific region.
“It’s a very exciting industry,” he says in an interview with The Pacific Telecommunications Council. “We’re trying to take edge computing in a different way.”
A leading force in the connectivity sector
A prominent figure within the data centre sector, Bill currently sits on the board or in advisory positions for major data centre companies. These include EdgeConneX, where he is an Advisor and non-executive director in Asia, a non-executive director position at IXAfrica Data Centre and a board membership at Ctrls Datacenters.
He is also the founder and chairman of Asian Century Equity, an emerging markets private capital technology investor.
IXAfrica is a data centre organisation established in Kenya in 2021, reacting to soaring demand for Kenyan internet connectivity from a young and fast-growing population. The company soon secured a 17,300 square metre in the capital, Nairobi.
The new facility aimed to be a major milestone for the IXAfrica company as it continues to cement its position as the digital transformation hub of East Africa.
“Africa is rapidly becoming an important growth hub and strategically positioned to play an even more significant role in the global digital ecosystem,” Bill said.
In recognition of his many data centre and telecom achievements, Bill has been awarded several awards and accolades. In 2008, he was named CEO of the Year, before being voted Best Asia Pacific Telecom Executive in 2009.
Additionally, he was awarded the Data Center Achievement Award at the Data Cloud Asia Awards in 2017 and later recognised as one of the Top 100 most influential CEOs in the telecom sector. Most recently in 2023, Bill was recognised by PTC, of which he is now chair, for his leadership with the Richard Barber Lifetime Achievement Award.
As the industry continues to grow and change like never before, leaders like Bill are instrumental in driving the next era of digital innovation.
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