Dawn Childs
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton sits down with Dame Dawn Childs, CEO of Pure Data Centers Group, for an inspiring conversation about her journey from 23 years as an RAF engineering officer to leading a global data center platform. Dawn shares her unconventional path through Gatwick Airport's private equity turnaround, setting up Merlin Entertainments' engineering directorate across 130 global theme parks, National Grid transformation, to joining Pure four and a half years ago asking "what's a data center?" and becoming CEO three years ago. She reveals Pure's superpower: unlocking capacity in supply-constrained...
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Laurance Lewis
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton sits down with Laurence Lewis, Senior Vice President and Global Commercial Officer at NTT Global Data Centers, for a conversation about his journey from attorney to global data center leader and NTT's worldwide expansion. Laurence shares his path through telecom infrastructure, private equity, Microsoft (running Americas site selection and Azure Edge Zones), IO Digital Partners, to now leading NTT's build-to-suit program and hyperscale strategy across 160+ data centers in 21 countries. He discusses NTT's unique position as the only major non-American global platform (making them...
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Giles Proctor
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton sits down with Giles Proctor, Vice President of Business Development at Goodman Data Centers, for a deep dive into one of the industry's best-kept secrets. Giles shares his 25-year journey from stumbling into data centers with startup Pihana Pacific (which became Equinix Asia's core), through Equinix operations and construction, building PacNet's business, creating Amazon's global leasing team, establishing Vantage Asia, to now leading Goodman's global business development. He reveals how Goodman has quietly delivered 800MW over 20 years, their 5-gigawatt power bank across 13...
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Tom Traugott
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton speaks with Tom Traugott, SVP of Emerging Technologies at EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure, about his journey from commercial real estate and carrier hotels to leading strategy for large-scale AI data-centre platforms. They discuss the industry’s shift toward gigawatt-scale AI campuses, the growing importance of power partnerships, liquid cooling, and sustainability, and how developers are rethinking scale, capital, and execution to meet the rising demands of the AI era.
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Luke Kipfer
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton sits down with Luke Kipfer, Managing Director of Development and Construction at PowerHouse Data Centers, for a look at one of the industry's most explosive growth stories. Luke shares his path from starting in the trades at 18 to joining PowerHouse three and a half years ago as a team of one managing 400MW, and now leading a 30-person team delivering over 6 gigawatts across the US with plans to double again in the next 12-16 months. He explains how PowerHouse leveraged parent company AREP's real estate DNA and flexible capitalization with partners like Blue Owl to rapidly scale....
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JF Berche
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton sits down with JF Berche, Chief Commercial Officer at Green Scale, to explore his journey from basketball player to cloud infrastructure pioneer. JF recounts his early days at AWS, his decade at Amazon and Microsoft, and how those experiences shaped his return to the sell side with Green Scale — a European data center company redefining capacity and sustainability. They discuss Green Scale’s “Scale for Good” and “Green Infrastructure” pillars, their upcoming 100MW site in Northern Ireland, and how AI is transforming data center design faster than the cloud revolution...
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Svante Horn
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton sits down with Svante Horn, co-founder of Scandinavian Data Centers (SDC), to discuss building one of the world's most circular data center platforms. Svante shares his journey from banking to data centers, explaining SDC's vision of "Data Center 3.0" - achieving near-100% heat reuse through district heating networks, using reserve power to stabilize grids, and deploying waste heat for greenhouse food production. He discusses securing their former WWII military facility, partnering with Balder for long-term growth, and why the industry needs to prioritize energy reuse over PUE...
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Diarmid Massey
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton talks with Diarmid Massey, CEO of ESR’s data center business, about his journey from rural England to leading data center expansion across Asia-Pacific. Diarmid shares how ESR is rapidly scaling in Japan, Korea, Australia, and India, leveraging local expertise and logistics roots. They discuss Asia’s massive growth potential, industry challenges around ESG and diversity, and the future of AI-driven infrastructure. A sharp look at the forces shaping Asia’s data center boom.
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Tim Hughes
a Word With Ward
Ward Hampton interviews Tim Hughes from Stack Infrastructure about his unconventional journey from Target overnight shifts and punk rock bands to leading development at one of the data center industry's fastest-growing companies, discussing Stack's hiring philosophy, the "vaporware" problem plaguing the industry, and why human capital matters more than financial capital in project execution.
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Oliver Schiebel
a Word With Ward
Oliver Schiebel is the CEO of hscale, a newly launched European data center platform backed by Bain Capital. Oliver is a 20+ year veteran of the telecommunications and data center industry who previously built the data center business for German utility Mainova, which recently saw a partial sale to BlackRock, and held senior roles at various data center providers including helping build Interxion's Frankfurt campus. In this episode, Oliver discusses hscale's ambitious European expansion strategy, launching with a gigawatt of development pipeline across Oslo, Milan,...
info_outlineWard Hampton sits down with Giles Proctor, Vice President of Business Development at Goodman Data Centers, for a deep dive into one of the industry's best-kept secrets. Giles shares his 25-year journey from stumbling into data centers with startup Pihana Pacific (which became Equinix Asia's core), through Equinix operations and construction, building PacNet's business, creating Amazon's global leasing team, establishing Vantage Asia, to now leading Goodman's global business development. He reveals how Goodman has quietly delivered 800MW over 20 years, their 5-gigawatt power bank across 13 metros on four continents, evolution from powered shells to turnkey delivery, and tackles the industry's critical blind spot: unprecedented construction scale colliding with dramatically increasing complexity as liquid cooling and 800-volt DC distribution require far more skilled people than the industry has prepared for