Top 10: Data Centre Leaders in the US
The data centre market across the United States of America is booming, with the nation still boasting the most data centre facilities of any country in the world. With such a title, its data centre revenue is expected to reach US$99.16bn in 2024.
Given that the country is the single largest region for connectivity and cloud in the world today, many technology companies are continuing to base themselves there - which in turn is leading to the data centre industry scaling up rapidly to meet rising demands. For instance, in 2022, Northern Virginia was home to some of the largest data centre operations in the world, hosting the likes of AWS, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
With this in mind, we champion some of the leading figures working in the data centre industry in the US, committed to advancing innovation and the next era of the sector.
10. Sureel Choksi, President & CEO at Vantage Data Centers
Having been at the helm of Vantage Data Centers since 2013, Sureel is responsible for the company’s overall vision, strategy and leadership. With more than 30 years of experience within the sector, he was successful in transforming the company from a regional data centre owner to one of the fastest-growing global providers.
Prior to Vantage, Sureel was an operating executive at Silver Lake Partners and CEO of Elevation Data Centers. He has also previously sat on the Board of Directors for Scala Data Centers and Zayo Group.
9. William Meaney, CEO at Iron Mountain
Having overseen Iron Mountain for the last decade, William’s leadership has ensured the company has expanded its global footprint and diversified its services from beyond physical document storage to include digital transformation solutions. Prior to joining Iron Mountain, Meaney served as CEO of The Zuellig Group and spent a number of years in the airline industry.
He is a member of the Asia Business Council and The Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the Board of Directors of State Street Corporation.
8. Susanna Kass, Co-Founder at InfraPrime
Sustainability advocate Susanna Kass is the Co-Founder of InfraPrime, Energy Fellow at Stanford University and acting as a Data Centre Advisor for the UN SDG Action Campaign Programme.
A true trailblazer and leader, through her work with InfraPrime, she has aided countless organisations to achieve their carbon neutrality goals by 2028-30 through decarbonisation services and implementation of the InfraPrime Net Zero PowerShell circular energy cloud sustainability solution.
Susanna boasts more than three decades of industry experience and remains passionate about the data centre industry.
7. Danielle Rossi, Global Director - Mission Critical Cooling at Trane Technologies
Danielle Rossi is an experienced enterprise system engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the mission critical data centre and secure power industries. Her expertise lies in data centre technologies, secure power applications and Software as a Service (SaaS), including infrastructure, data centre infrastructure management (DCIM), cooling and power systems.
Her current work with Trane finds her pioneering data centre cooling with sustainability in mind, which you can read about in Data Centre Magazine’s report HERE.
Prior to working at Trane, Danielle worked at Schneider Electric for more than 11 years and was Enterprise Systems Engineer until 2020.
6. Brian Cox, CEO at STACK Infrastructure
Brian Cox has brought to STACK more than two decades of industry and operational excellence. Before joining the continually-growing company as CEO in 2018, he was CFO and then COO of Cologix, where he was latterly responsible for market positioning, strategy, marketing and commercial management, growing the business from a startup with one data centre into an international platform with 25 locations across the US and Canada.
In 2023, he was recognised as one of the National Safety Council (NSC)’s 2023 CEOs Who “Get It” for his commitment to creating a culture of safety standards, safety innovations and safety transparency.
5. Nadège Petit, EVP & Chief Innovation Officer at Schneider Electric
Having first joined Schneider Electric in 2004, Nadège Petit is responsible for cultivating open innovation via the company’s external partnerships, business incubations, investments and joint ventures. As part of her role, continues to drive forward the transition towards a more electric, sustainable and digital world.
Having been based in the US since 2021, Nadège has worked all over the world, including Russia, France and Hong Kong. She gained her Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Technology of Compiegne in France and holds an Executive MBA from Kingston University, UK.
4. Matt Garman, CEO at AWS
Having been appointed CEO at AWS in June 2024, following Adam Selipsky’s resignation, Matt Garman vision has been significant already in helping the company to progress even further in the global cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) race.
Having first started at Amazon in 2005, Matt holds more than 20 years of experience within the company as he strove to help build his knowledge and a strong customer base. Having worked as an MBA intern, he joined the company full-time in 2006 as one of the first product managers at AWS.
When appointed he spoke on the importance of keeping data safe, stating: “Delivering secure and operationally excellent services for our customers is, and will forever remain, our top priority. Our customers are not simply using AWS as a ‘nice-to-have’. They’re literally trusting us with their critical business operations, with their most important data and with how they serve their own customers.”
3. Thomas Kurian, CEO at Google Cloud
Thomas Kurian first joined the Google Cloud team in 2019 and has since made it his mission to accelerate the company’s ability to digitally transform business with the best infrastructure. A significant aspect of this evolution is Google’s data centre operations, as it aims to offer businesses the best expertise, platforms and industry solutions.
The Google Cloud Platform offers a broad range of organisational services ranging from machine learning to data analytics and storage. Currently, Google Cloud is focused on lowering its environmental impact through energy-efficient data centres, carbon offset programmes and sustainable practices.
2. Andrew Power, President & CEO at Digital Realty
Andrew (Andy) Power has served as Digital Realty’s President since 2021 and holds responsibility for its global portfolio operations, technology development and innovation. He has also overseen the service provider’s enterprise customer solutions, asset management and information technology, in addition to its financial functions, during his tenure.
Prior to joining Digital Realty, Andy held positions of increasing responsibility at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, with his most recent role being Managing Director of Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging Investment Banking. Here, he was responsible for relationships with over 40 public and private companies, including Digital Realty.
1. Dr Lisa Su, Chair and CEO at AMD
Dr Lisa Su is a long-term technology executive with more than 15 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. Working at the helm of AMD as its Chair and CEO, she has enabled the company to undergo a significant transformation to refocus its strategy, market approach and product development moving forward.
Her continued passion for global technology teams and bringing innovative products to market has been instrumental in AMD's resurgence, prompting the company’s shares to spike massively in 2024. Successfully steering AMD towards becoming a leader in high-performance and adaptive computing, it is now one of the fastest-growing semiconductor companies worldwide.
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