The United States (US) is the largest global market for data centres, boasting the most facilities worldwide. With data centre revenue expected to reach US$99.16bn in 2024 across the region, the country’s market influence cannot be overstated.
However, despite its successes, the data centre industry continues to have a low presence of women. As data centres continue to evolve, a lack of diversity could lead to long-lasting implications that include limiting innovation and missing out on digital opportunities.
Data Centre Magazine considers some of the leading women in data centres across the US. These women are not only successful in their respective fields, but are also involved in advocating for women in technology, inclusion and equity across the data centre sector.
Some of these women feature in our sister publication, Technology Magazine’s Top 100 Women in Technology 2024.
10. Terri Hatcher, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at NTT DATA Services
Committed to advancing equalities at NTT, Terri Hatcher is committed to making the data centre industry more inclusive moving forward.
As Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, she led the creation of an internal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion certification programme at NTT called Inclusion Intelligence Certification. As a result, over 60% of NTT DATA Services global population is certified, and employees worldwide are engaged in building programs that support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In an exclusive feature piece with Data Centre Magazine, Terri said: “Leaders within an organisation should see these groups not as a formality, but as an important part of supporting a gender-diverse and inclusive business.”
9. Heather Dooley, Chairperson of the Board at EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure
With nearly three decades of experience in the technology sector, Heather Dooley is a trusted advisor and board member for several leading companies in the digital infrastructure, internet and construction industries. Holding chair and director positions at organisations such as EdgeCore, Cirion Technologies and Linesight, she applies her expertise in ESG consulting, business strategy, digital transformation and business operations.
Heather previously worked at Google as Global Director and Data Center Chief of Staff, highlighting her track record of leading digital transformation initiatives across global teams and markets.
8. Nancy Novak, Chief Innovation Officer at Compass Datacenters
Nancy Novak holds more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry and is focused on cutting-edge technologies and innovative culture to add value, improve return on investment and disrupt the construction industry.
In addition to her work at Compass Datacenters, Nancy serves on the Board of Directors for Weston Solutions, a global environmental firm. She is heavily involved in organisations that lead the way for technological advancement in the construction industry, in addition to being an advocate for women’s leadership.
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, DCIM, cooling and power systems.
Prior to working at Trane, Danielle worked at Schneider Electric for more than 11 years and was Enterprise Systems Engineer until 2020.
6. Nicole Collins, Chief Transformation Officer at Equinix
Currently working at Equinix, Nicole Collins is a transformation officer, innovator, team builder, mentor and DIB advocate. In her role, she is responsible for driving transformation initiatives for the business, while balancing its focus on innovation, customer centricity and operational efficiency.
Nicole also leads the Equinix Transformation Office, which partners across business functions to implement multi-year transformational initiatives. She aims to do this whilst focusing on the project management and process architecture of data centres.
Prior to joining Equinix, Nicole held leadership roles at notable leading technology organisations, including VMware and Dell Technologies.
5. Mithu Bhargava, EVP and GM Digital Solutions at Iron Mountain Data Centers
A change agent and seasoned executive, who is passionate about diversity, and advocating for women in technology, Mithu Bhargava is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Digital Solutions at Iron Mountain Data Centers.
Bhargava specialises in building and leading high-performing global, customer-centric businesses, through periods of hyper-growth and rapid transformation. Her experience also lies in facilitating business growth across leading technology companies, transforming software, hardware and services businesses to an as-a-service model.
4. Teena Piccione, Global Transformation & Operations Executive at Google
Teena Piccione is an accomplished global strategist, strategic advisor and transformational operator. With more than 25 years of experience across the technology industry, she has worked to revolutionise Google’s core division to deliver unrivalled innovation, strategic realignment and accelerated growth.
Currently, Teena is committed to fostering industry evolution and collaboration as she seeks to shape the future of business. She has been twice named among the Top 50 CIOs for Diversity and is honoured as a diversity champion across IT and business sectors.
3. Nadège Petit, EVP and Chief Innovation Officer at Schneider Electric
Having first joined Schneider Electric in 2004, Nadège Petit is now responsible for cultivating open innovation via the company’s external partnerships, business incubations, investments and joint ventures. She is working to drive the transition towards a more electric, sustainable and digital world.
Now based in the US, 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.
2. Dr Lisa Su, Chair and CEO at AMD
Passionate about leading global technology teams to deliver great products and solutions to market, Lisa Su spent over 15 years in the semiconductor industry before joining AMD. Today she is the company’s Chair and CEO, leading the successful transformation of the company’s strategy, market focus and product execution.
Lisa has since led the company’s transformation into a high-performance and adaptive computing leader. As a result, AMD is now one of the fastest-growing semiconductor companies in the world.
“I would walk into rooms where there were, like, 25 people, and I might have been the only woman,” she recalled of her early engineering days in an interview with Forbes. “Where I have a lot of passion is young women engineers—keeping them in engineering.”
1. Susanna Kass, Co-Founder at InfraPrime
Susanna Kass is a renowned Cloud Sustainability Executive and Clean Energy Advisor, committed to driving higher ESG standards across the industry. She is a stellar advocate for sustainability across the data centre industry and beyond, acting as a consistent voice across the sector working towards the common goal of a more sustainable, greener future.
Working to inspire the next generation of sustainability leaders, Susanna’s work at InfraPrime has allowed her to aid 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.
Her overall goal is to accelerate the transition of clean energy infrastructure for the data centre industry. Additionally, she acts as a STEM mentor to more than 300 young people at Stanford University and undertakes further research in Sustainability Design and Circular Economy.
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