VIRTUS appoints Mike Golding as SVP of Design & Build

VIRTUS Data Centres, London’s leading data centre company and part of ST Telemedia Global Data Centres Group, has today announced the appointment of Mike Golding as SVP of Design and Build. Reporting directly to Neil Cresswell, CEO of VIRTUS Data Centres, Mike will be a key member of the leadership team, responsible for all aspects of the design and construction of VIRTUS’ data centres. 

Golding’s primary focus in the role will be to lead design and construction activities across London and EMEA. He will be tasked with ensuring that VIRTUS’ data centres are reliable, resilient and responsible; built to the highest industry standards to deliver operational excellence as efficiently as possible. As part of his role, Mike will lead VIRTUS’ Safety First Construction, Projects and Design Engineering teams across EMEA with innovative, efficient and fast data centre builds, which deliver zero downtime and scalability for our customers. 

Having worked in the construction industry for over 30 years, 20 of which have been spent in the data centre industry, Mike brings a depth of experience that is hard to match in the sector. He has delivered over 750MW of capacity for lease providers and self-build programs of work during this time. A strong advocate of construction safety, scheduling predictability, sustainability and quality, Mike is an expert in end-to-end data centre delivery in established and new geographies in EMEA. 

In a statement, Golding said: “VIRTUS Data Centres has an unprecedented reputation in the industry and I am proud to be joining the team at such an exciting time of expansion. As a trusted leader designing and operating cutting-edge data centres and the UK’s leading data centre provider, I am looking forward to leading the design and construction of the company’s facilities both in the UK and new geographies. With an objective to always provide the best in data centre technology, we are in an ideal position to support our customers with the vast opportunity that digital infrastructure brings.” 

Data centres are the core of digital and data transformation

Neil Cresswell, CEO for VIRTUS Data Centres, said: “Despite the digital economy accounting for more than 7% of the country’s GDP, we are still in the early stages of global digital and data transformation. Data centres are at the core of this transformation so it’s no surprise that industry experts are estimating that the global data centre market will reach US$288.3bn by 2027. 

“Being trusted to deliver robust, efficient, scalable facilities has never been more important and bringing experts like Mike into VIRTUS’ leadership team is key to the success of our strategy. With his deep industry knowledge and background, we are excited for Mike to lead the way in construction, design and build.” 

Mike has a proven track record having previously worked across UK and Europe for companies such as Digital Realty, Cundall and Arup operating in both design and construction lead roles. Mike’s most recent position was Construction leader for Microsoft in EMEA. For six years, he was instrumental in expanding the organisation’s footprint in both established and new geographies, delivering capacity to drive hyperscale cloud business growth. 

He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and holds an 1st class honours degree in Electrical and Power Engineering as well as being a power systems SME and Uptime certified designer. 

Image: VIRTUS