Leadership Updates: Key Data Center & Cloud Appointments (Q3 2026)

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Leadership Updates: Key Data Center & Cloud Appointments (Q3 2026)
New executive moves at Colt, Stream, and Vantage are among the latest leadership changes shaping the data center and cloud industries.
July 9, 2026
This quarter, major players including Colt, Stream, and Vantage Data Centers have announced key appointments to support their ambitious expansion plans.
Meanwhile, infrastructure vendors and service providers are bolstering their leadership teams to address the increasing complexity of power, sustainability, and edge computing demands.
Data Center Operations
NTT Data Group has transitioned to a new management structure, appointing Kazuhiko Nakayama as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. Nakayama previously served as the global tech services and digital infrastructure giant's CFO before succeeding Yutaka Sasaki, who has transitioned to Senior Executive Vice President of NTT.
Following its acquisition by Apollo Funds, wholesale colocation provider Stream Data Centers has added two key executives to its leadership ranks. Murray Woolcock joins as Chief Financial Officer to oversee capital strategy and financial operations, while 25-year DPR Construction veteran Scott Greubel steps in as Executive Vice President of Construction. Both leaders previously worked with Stream as independent contractors and will now focus on scaling the firm’s design and construction standards to meet accelerating hyperscale demand.
Keel Infrastructure Corporation has named Ganesh Aiyer as President to spearhead its commercial and pipeline expansion activities. Aiyer brings 25 years of data center stack experience to the North American digital infrastructure and energy firm, having most recently served as Chief Business Officer for global giant Digital Realty Trust.
UK-based AI infrastructure developer Kao Data has promoted Spencer Lamb to Chief Executive Officer. Lamb, who has led the company’s go-to-market strategy as Managing Director and CCO since 2020, succeeds to the top post to direct day-to-day operations and portfolio expansions across Harlow, Slough, and Greater Manchester.
Global hyperscale operator Colt Data Centre Services has named David Burton as Chief Information Officer, pulling the technology veteran from his previous role as Group Director of Information at Global Switch. Burton will command Colt’s global technology and security teams to build out secure digital platforms as portfolio scaling accelerates. Colt also appointed Fumi Takei as Vice President and Head of Japan to spearhead strategic growth in the critical APAC market.
Vantage Data Centers has expanded its executive team with two high-profile international appointments. Emma Jeffries, formerly the Chief People Officer at ATOMS and chief Human Resources Officer at Iron Mountain, joins as Global Chief People Officer based out of Denver. Concurrently, Michael Fränkle has been named Chief Operating Officer for EMEA based in Frankfurt, bringing more than 25 years of telecom and digital infrastructure experience from senior roles at Tele Columbus and Telefónica o2 to manage regional uptime and operations.
Further Operations & Advisory Appointments:
NTT Global Data Centers has promoted Konstantin Hartmann to the newly created role of SVP of Global Sales and Client Services. Hartmann, who previously served as Managing Director for EMEA, will harmonize the company's regional sales strategies to support multinational clients deploying globalized AI workloads.
Elea Data Centers has hired Uptime Institute-accredited industry veteran Thiago Pongelupe as Technical Sales Director to manage commercial pricing and partner relationships as the operator ramps up its hyperscale and AI platform expansion across Brazil.
Turnkey design-build construction firm Clayco has appointed former OpenAI Head of Go-to-Market Zack Kass to its Board of Advisors to provide strategic oversight on enterprise AI strategy, digital transformation, and next-generation technologies in the built environment.
Infrastructure Vendors
Oracle has appointed Hilary Maxson as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), reporting directly to CEO Clay Magouyrk. Maxson steps into the role during a period of massive cloud expansion for the company, driven by demand for AI training, inferencing, and multicloud databases. Maxson replaces Doug Kehring, who managed the finance team over the last six months and will now return his full focus to go-to-market operations.
Güntner Group has named Yan Evans as Managing Director, Global Data Center Business. Evans will unify and lead data center activities across the company’s portfolio, working across both the Güntner and JAEGGI cooling brands. Evans previously spent seven years building and leading the global data center operations at FläktGroup.
Apx Data Centre Solutions, the newly rebranded data center division of the LFB Group, has appointed a trio of leaders to expand its European heat rejection infrastructure business. Kris Wauters, formerly of Mitsubishi Electric, joins as Enterprise Manager for the Benelux region to target rapid data center growth in Belgium. Stuart Newman joins as Business Development Manager for the UK, Ireland, and Europe to design tailored cooling solutions for hyperscalers and neocloud users. Completing the trio, Philippe Torres joins from FläktGroup and Schneider Electric as Business Development Director for France, focusing on lifecycle support and system reliability across the country's expanding national market.
Trane Technologies has expanded its operational leadership, naming Donny Simmons as Chief Operating Officer. Simmons will oversee regional business units just as Trane integration activities accelerate following its recent acquisition of liquid cooling specialist LiquidStack.
Finchetto has appointed Kevin Crain as VP of Engineering and Product and John Harper as Strategic Advisor to accelerate the development of its fully optical passive network switch. Crain, an Intel alumnus with 30 years of experience, will oversee the company’s optical switching systems and photonic integrated circuit roadmap. Harper, who previously led the global development team for Cisco’s Internetwork Operating System (IOS), will advise the board on feature prioritization and commercial partnerships.
Further Infrastructure & Tech Appointments:
Anthropic has appointed longtime Microsoft executive Eric Boyd as its new Head of Infrastructure. He will focus on building and scaling Anthropic’s AI infrastructure for research and product development, CTO Rahul Patil said in a LinkedIn post.
Scality has named Greg DiFraia as Senior Vice President of AI Alliances and Partnerships to lead its global enterprise AI ecosystem strategy. DiFraia, the former CEO of Inlayer, returns to Scality where he previously spent five years as General Manager and Field CTO.
EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure has hired Greg Thompson as Senior Vice President of Enterprise Security. Thompson, a former FBI manager and former CISO for both VHC Health and Vantage Data Centers, will lead EdgeCore's newly unified physical and cybersecurity programs.
Real Estate, Construction & Engineering
Latham & Watkins has expanded its global real estate practice and interdisciplinary data center team by hiring Kaila Sergent as a partner in the firm's Los Angeles office. Sergent joins from DLA Piper, bringing extensive experience in high-value commercial real estate transactions, with a specialization in large-scale data center campus leasing, powered shell and build-to-suit developments, and multi-jurisdictional portfolio acquisitions.
JLL has announced two strategic leadership updates within its Data Center and Critical Environments practice, hiring US Navy veteran Brandon Keesee as Managing Director of Hyperscale and Colocation Data Centers and promoting fellow Navy veteran Michael Martin to Managing Director of Data Center Operations. Keesee, previously the multi-site global Data Center Operations Leader at Apple, will drive facilities management solutions and growth strategies. Martin, who joined JLL in 2025 after serving as Senior Director at Microsoft, will oversee operational compliance, safety, and reliability across the firm’s colocation, enterprise, and hyperscale portfolios.
Black & White Engineering has appointed Charlie Bater as Chief Technical Officer and Paul Cook as Global Director of Technology and Innovation to support its expanding international footprint across 24 locations. Bater, who has been with the global data center design consultancy for eight years and most recently served as Global Data Center Director, steps into the newly created CTO role to standardize technical delivery. Cook joins the senior leadership team from Yondr Group, where he led R&D for next-generation data center platforms.
Cushman & Wakefield has named Leon Ikeda as Head of Advisory and Transactions for its Asia Pacific Data Centre Group. Based in Singapore, Ikeda will lead strategic advisory mandates, capital deployment, and platform expansions for regional data center operators, investors, and hyperscale clients. Ikeda returns to the firm after holding senior regional acquisition roles on the operator side at Equinix and Digital Realty, where he oversaw major transactions in core APAC hubs including Tokyo and Osaka.
The Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE Group) has appointed Denise Bower OBE, Group Director for External Engagement at Mott MacDonald, as its new Chair. Rukhsana Faiz, Managing Director of Environment, Sustainability and Planning at Tetra Tech, has been named Chair of the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC), the environmental division of the ACE Group. Both leaders will work alongside CEO Milda Manomaityte to advise the UK government on infrastructure funding, grid decarbonization, and skills investment.
Other Industry Appointments
ASHRAE has formally installed Sarah Maston as its Society President for the 2026–27 term. Maston, who serves as the Geographic Discipline Leader for Commissioning and Energy Services in New England for Colliers Project Leaders, introduced her foundational organizational theme: “Changing the Game: Retrofitting for Resilience.” Her administration will center on elevating building code awareness, advancing cross-functional team framework plans for operational efficiency, and leaning heavily on the gamification of educational programs to attract new talent into the engineering space.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has shakeups across its top governance structure. Michael Innocenzo, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Exelon, has officially assumed the position of Board Chair. Serving alongside him is Matthew Ketschke, President of Consolidated Edison, who will act as First Vice Chair. The leadership transition arrives at a critical juncture as EPRI pivots its research focus toward maintaining grid reliability amid unprecedented energy demand and rapid infrastructure transformation.
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