As the founder and Chief Executive Officer of SpaceDC, Darren Hawkins is the lodestone upon which the strategic direction and growth of the company rests. He’s well suited to the task, with more than 30 years of experience in the data centre and critical infrastructure industries. During his three-decade-long career, Hawkins has been involved in the construction and deployment of more than 33 data centres in multiple markets around the globe, working with clients ranging from PPCW, ANZ and GlobalSwitch, to Toyota, HSBC, British Airways and Telstra to deliver cutting-edge, resilient digital infrastructure wherever and whenever it has been required.
Though he isn’t unaccustomed to leadership roles - having served as a Director on the board of Turner & Townsend between 2006 and 2009, and managing roles at various architectural and infrastructure firms - this is Hawkins’ first time in the CEO’s chair. This doesn’t seem to bother him much, however, as he lays out SpaceDC’s strategy for a green data centre revolution throughout SEA with confidence and enthusiasm.
“As CEO, I lead the development of SpaceDC's long and short-term strategy, as well as shaping the overall vision and mission for the company. In addition to driving the business forward, I also provide strategic direction at the board level,” he explains. “We're currently working on our next generation of projects throughout Asia, which are taking our green ambitions to the next level. We're exploring passive and green power, which we believe will help make our data centres even more environmentally friendly than they already are.”
That focus on sustainability - in a market where green data centre options have traditionally been quite thin on the ground - as well as a deep level of technical knowhow that permeates the entire company, is the lynchpin for Hawkins’ ambitious goals for SpaceDC. And the approach is already producing results.
“Our customers are very happy when we sit down to talk with them at a senior level because we have a very good technical understanding of the technical functionality of our data centres, not just in terms of what we're planning, but of the different options available. We often have an ongoing discussion with our customers where they can ask us, for example, about different cooling strategies, and Nick and I are both quite well versed in how to apply those strategies and the effects that they would have on the day to day operations of a data centre,” he explains, adding that, “Our customers also really admire the fact we're focused on developing greener projects.”
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