Investment Forum | New York // Speakers include

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Chris Moon is a Managing Director, Credit at DigitalBridge Investment Management. Chris is responsible for origination in the Americas and European regions and has over 20 years of experience in the Communications and Technology sectors including over 15 years of direct experience in sourcing transactions in digital infrastructure.

Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Chris was a Managing Director and founding member of the TMT Sector Lending Group at ING Bank and had responsibility for origination, structuring and underwriting leveraged transactions in North America and LatAm. Prior to ING, he was an Analyst at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Management Division and a CPA at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in the Communications and Technology practice.

Chris received an MBA and MS in Tax and a dual Bachelor of Science in Finance and Computer Information Systems from Northeastern University. He is a CFA Charterholder and a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

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Miles Loo Jr., CRE, FRICS, joined Newmark Valuation & Advisory in 2017 in the Downtown Los Angeles office, where he serves as an Executive Vice President and the Global Lead for Newmark Valuation & Advisory’s Data Centers & Life Science group.

Miles is well recognized as the industry’s leading appraiser of data center properties. His experience includes advising private equity funds, institutional investors, large pension funds, Fortune 500 companies, cloud companies and Global IT conglomerates on investments in all types of data centers, including mission critical, disaster recovery data centers, colocation facilities, carrier hotels, internet gateways and life science properties. These assignments have involved data centers owned and/or operated by Fortune 500 companies across numerous industries as well as Uptime Institute Site Certified Tier III and Tier IV facilities; U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Platinum, Gold and Silver buildings; and state and federal disaster recovery data centers. Miles has led valuations of large individual and portfolio valuations spanning multiple countries across six continents (NA, EMEA, APAC, LATAM and African regions) and has consulted on a number of the world’s largest data centers.

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Matt Pfile is the founder and CEO of Crane Data Centers Inc., a data center developer and operator with a strong commitment to sustainability, customer centricity, and innovation. He has over 25 years of experience in telecom engineering, critical infrastructure acquisition, corporate banking, management consulting, and commercial negotiations. Prior to Crane, he spent 12+ years at Google leading over $5B of global infrastructure acquisitions and led the entry of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) into Australia and Japan, data center site selection strategy, third-party data center leasing, utility interconnections, and land acquisitions across the Americas and Asia. He received a degree in finance from Georgetown University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

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John is a Senior Vice President in Moody’s Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Team where he leads a diverse portfolio of project financings, data centers, PPPs, and municipal infrastructure issuers in the transportation, energy, digital, social, and environmental infrastructure sectors. John leads Moody’s data center working groups and Moody’s global PPP task force that he formed to serve as a central resource for market inquires, new research development and to build analytical capacity while maintaining consistency. John also organizes Moody’s annual US Infrastructure and Project Finance conference, authors research across sectors, and annually leads several new rating assignments for new project financings and PPPs in the US and Canada across all asset classes.

Before joining the PIF team in 2010, John spent two and a half years as a lead analyst for local governments and enterprises in Moody’s Eastern Regional Ratings Team where he was the lead for municipal issuers in Pennsylvania and New York while also covering municipal issuers in New Jersey, Virginia, and Florida. John helped launch and was the initial co-chair for Moody’s NY Multicultural Employee Resource Group and a founding steering committee member of Moody’s NY LGBTA Employee Resource Group.

Prior to joining Moody’s, John worked as a risk management analyst, a property and casualty insurance account manager, and a health care claims auditor. John earned his BA degree in Health Care Economics and Policy from Stanford University and his MPA in Health Care Public Finance from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

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With over $150MM commercial real estate experience as a principal investor, Matt Wanderer is an experienced founder, CEO, and member of multiple private equity and venture capital portfolio companies.​ Matt is a five-time “500 Fastest Growing Private Company Award” recipient. Matt is a proud Oregon Duck having earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon. He later earned his M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris.

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Veronica Huang is a Vice President – Senior Analyst at Moody’s Ratings, where she has been a key member of the CMBS New Ratings team since 2017. She leads the ratings analysis of conduit/fusion and large loan CMBS transactions, specializing in deals backed by complex and esoteric assets, including data centers. Veronica also leads Moody’s CMBS data center team and plays a pivotal role in developing the firm’s approach to data center CMBS and ABS ratings.

Previously, Veronica was a lead analyst on Moody’s RMBS Surveillance team, monitoring a portfolio of complex legacy RMBS transactions. She holds a Master of Science in Finance from the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Accounting from Drake University. Veronica is also a CFA charterholder.

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Jojo is a cloud product manager turned VC and currently serves as an associate at Sixty Degree Capital, leading data center infrastructure investments. She has over 10 years of experience in building cloud data centers in major teleco and has previously developed cloud products from zero to one and N. She is passionate about supporting data center startups, including those focused on computing platforms and network tools.

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Buddy Rizer serves as the Executive Director for economic development in Loudoun County, Virginia, which was named the 2021 Economic Development Organization of the Year by the International Economic Development Council. He leads the agency responsible for encouraging growth and developing relationships with Loudoun’s business community in both the commercial and agricultural-based business sectors. During his tenure, Rizer and his team have attracted more than $60 billion in new commercial investment and more than 50 thousand new jobs. During this time, the growth in the commercial based has help lower the tax rate in Loudoun by more than 41 cents on the dollar, saving residents thousands of dollars annually on their tax bill.

In 2007, Mr. Rizer joined Loudoun County and helped build “Data Center Alley” into the largest concentration of data centers in the world. He also has extensive international business development experience in China, France, Germany, Russia, Ireland, United Kingdom, Finland, Taiwan, Japan, India, Korea, Ghana, Uruguay, and the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Rizer has been named a Tech Titan 7 times by Washingtonian Magazine (2017 – 2023), has been named one of the 50 most influential Virginians 6 times by Virginia Business Magazine (2018 – 2023), a 4-time member of Virginia’s Power 500 (2020 – 2023) and was three times named to the Washington Business Journal’s Power 100 as one of the most influential businesspeople in Washington, DC (2020, 2022, 2023).

Mr. Rizer serves as the Past-Chair of the Northern Virginia Economic Development Alliance (NOVA EDA), is a member of the Board of Trustees for Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), Past-Chair of the Northern Virginia Community College Foundation Board, Secretary of the Go Virginia Region 7 Council. He is on the Board of Directors for the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and the Washington Airports Task Force (WATF). He is also the Chair of the Rivana at Innovation Station Community Development Authority.

Mr. Rizer is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), a certified Entrepreneurship Development Professional (EDP) and a graduate of Virginia Tech's Local Government Management Graduate Certificate Program.

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Gelila Bekele is the founder of Aone Partners, a private investment partnership backed by 14 industry-leading software CEOs, technology founders and global investors managing over $1 billion in AUM. Aone Partners specializes in acquiring and scaling enterprise software and technology-enabled services businesses.

Before founding Aone, Gelila was a Director at a leading software holding company and a Researcher at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where she published nine studies on technology innovation in the Harvard Business Review. Early in her career, Gelila was an investor within BlackRock’s Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions Group.

Gelila earned a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Columbia College, where she was a Kluge Scholar, and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Gelila grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and is now based in New York. She serves on the Boards of mission-driven organizations, including Girls Gotta Run Foundation (GGRF), a foundation that has awarded merit scholarships to over 600 student athletes. She also serves on the Grant Review Committee of Project Redwood, a philanthropic organization that has deployed over $5 million in funding to hundreds of social entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations worldwide.

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Gabriel leads transaction origination and client coverage in digital infrastructure project finance at Mizuho Bank. He oversees structuring, underwriting and execution of a multi-billion-dollar financings and supports firm-wide, cross-product strategy to cross-sell advisory, capital markets and derivatives business. Gabriel was instrumental in building the strategy in 2023 and positioning Mizuho as a top 5 bank in less than two years.

Gabriel joined Mizuho Project Finance in 2022, after spending more than 12 years at Societe Generale and MUFG covering the energy and infrastructure financing in North and South America for clients around the world in sectors including renewable and conventional power, midstream oil and gas, transportation, social, and digital infrastructure. Prior to his career in Project Finance, Gabriel was a consultant at NERA Economic consulting. Gabriel received an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Oberlin College

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Syed Ahmed is a Managing Director and Head of Digital Infrastructure at Apterra, a direct infrastructure origination platform of Apollo. He is responsible for originating digital infrastructure financings for Apterra in areas including data centers, broadband and mobile towers. Prior to joining Apterra, he was at MetLife Investment Management for 12 years, where he was responsible for originating infrastructure debt investments globally and client management. He holds a BSc in finance from Rutgers Business School and is a CFA charterholder.

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With over two decades of experience in private equity, corporate finance, and business development, Alessandro heads Elea Digital Data Centers, a leading data center company in Latin America. Elea Digital Data Centers invests and operates in data centers that enable the sustainable digitalization of the economy and society.

Alessandro is the founder and CEO of Piemonte Holding, a diversified investment holding company that partners with global financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs.

He has successfully executed multiple M&A transactions and raised capital for various businesses in the digital infrastructure, defense and technology sectors.

He holds a graduate degree in economics and business administration from Luiss Guido Carli University and studied history of philosophy and art in prestigious Italian universities.

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Andrej leads the Americas Digital Infrastructure practice at AlixPartners. He specializes in driving value creation across the digital infrastructure landscape, with a focus on fiber, towers, and data centers. He helps clients optimize fiber deployment, maximize asset monetization, and enhance operational efficiency to unlock long-term growth. His expertise extends to M&A strategy, guiding companies through due diligence and post-transaction value realization. In data centers, he focuses on execution excellence for new DCs, ensuring projects are delivered on time through robust supply chain strategies and sourcing optimization, as well as margin improvement and value creation for traditional DCs.

A recognized thought leader, Andrej is a frequent speaker and panelist at premier industry conferences, where he shares insights on the evolving telecommunications landscape, the future of digital infrastructure, and the disruptive impact of emerging technologies. 

Before joining AlixPartners, Andrej held leadership roles at Deutsche Telekom and T-Systems. He holds a dual PhD in economics and law. 

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Golding Chief Technology Officer and Partner Appleby Strategy Group Dan Golding is one of the world's leading experts at data center and network engineering, business development, and operations. He has a 25-year career focused on building Internet, Cloud, and AI/ML infrastructure for enterprises, colocation providers, hyperscale clouds, and the emerging AI ecosystem. Dan recently left a long career at Google where he was the only Google Engineering Director to be a part of both the Google Global Networking and Google Data Centers Advanced Technology Innovation teams. He's been a technical lead on the design, engineering and build teams responsible for over $25b of datacenters - thousands of megawatts. He's also a leader in data center leasing, having negotiated, sold, performed due diligence, or signed over $600m of wholesale data center lease deals.

Prior to joining Google, Dan was the Vice President of Operations and Engineering at Iron Mountain Data Centers, and before that, RagingWire Data Centers (now NTT Data Centers). Dan was the sector's leading industry analyst and investment banker at Gartner for Technical Professionals, Tier 1 Research (451 Group) and DH Capital. Dan was one of the earliest engineering leaders at groundbreaking Internet service providers like AOL, Mindspring, and Earthlink. Dan is the former Chairman of NANOG and former vice-Chairman and co-founder of Open-IX. He is frequently credited as the co-founder of Northern Virginia's Data Center Alley in Ashburn.

Dan's three most significant innovations have been the popularization of the now dominant Donut model of Internet interconnection which supplanted the former Tier-n model of interconnect; the most historically advantageous Ashburn, VA data center land deal - NTT's 100 acre campus in the middle of Ashburn for $20m in 2012 - land with an objective value of $500m; and the development of engineering continuous improvement techniques to vastly accelerate deployments in hyperscale data centers by factors of 5x or more.

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Edward Socia is the Insight Director for datacenterHawk, and has 13 years of industry experience.

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Gordon Dolven leads the development of the CBRE’s data center research and thought leadership in the Americas and support its data center professionals in business development efforts. He also collaborates with data center research colleagues in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific on global initiatives.

An expert on digital infrastructure, Gordon is particularly interested in how the fundamental shifts toward sustainability are reshaping the ecosystem of how connectivity works. As a public speaker, he provides critical context for both massive and subtle shifts in the commercial real estate market, and his analysis has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, World Property Journal and more.

Mr. Dolven joined CBRE from IX Acquisition Corp., where he analyzed and evaluated a large volume of private digital infrastructure companies. He previously held investment roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Janus Capital Group.

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Ilissa Miller is the Founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations, host of the NEDAS Live! podcast, and Editor-in-Chief of Data Center POST and TelecomNewsroom. With nearly 30 years of experience in PR, marketing, and digital infrastructure, Ilissa has launched global campaigns across data centers, cloud, and telecom. She serves on the Forbes Agency Council, advises the Nomad Futurist Foundation, and holds board roles with OIX and the In-building Wireless Association (TIWA).

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Jonathan Schroth is a research analyst on the 451 Research Datacenter Infrastructure & Services team within S&P Global Market Intelligence. His research focuses on datacenter economics and capital markets; supply/demand, utilization and growth forecasts; retail, wholesale and hyperscale activity; government incentives and regulation; and pricing dynamics. He is responsible for geographical coverage of markets in the US (Greater New York/tri-state area, Boston/New England, Chicago and the Pacific Northwest) and the entirety of Canada (where the largest markets include Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver). He is also the team expert on submarine cable infrastructure, as well as trends around the intersection of traditional colocation and cryptocurrency mining.

Prior to joining S&P Global, Jonathan spent nearly a decade at Westfield Capital Management, a Boston-based equity investment firm, where he focused on portfolio construction and strategy as a member of the portfolio strategy team. He was also a consumer of technology in his role at Westfield, evaluating and helping to implement software packages that incorporated big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Jonathan received his bachelor of arts cum laude in Economics and English from Colby College. He is a CFA® charterholder.

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Raj leads Thor’s Data Center program across the Americas, bringing 20+ years of sr. management experience from Google and Deloitte.

Before joining Thor Equities, Raj led Data Center acquisitions across the Americas for Google. During his tenure at Google, Raj also held roles as Global Lead of Economic and Community

Development (ECD) and regional leadership roles overseeing Google’s Data Center acquisitions in the US-Central and Latin American regions. In leading Google’s ECD program, Raj led global

programs in Economic Development, Public Affairs, Workforce Development, Social Impact and Content Development.

Prior to Google, Raj was a Sr. Manager in Deloitte Consulting’s Real Estate and Location Strategy practice group where he advised a wide range of multinational Fortune 500 companies on global location strategy engagements.

Raj holds a BA in Biology from Denison University and a JD from the University of Notre Dame. Raj lives in Pleasanton, CA with his spouse, 3 children and 2 dogs.

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Shannon Coyne, CFA, is the Co-Founder of CapAvenue, where she provides capital markets

and financial advisory services to founders and entrepreneurs.

Previously, Shannon co-founded and served as President of Bluestock Advisors, a

management consulting firm specializing in strategic advisory, investor relations, and private

capital raising for C-suite executives.

Before launching Bluestock Advisors, she was a Senior Equity Analyst at BMO Capital Markets,

covering the Household Products and Personal Care sectors. In 2017, Shannon was named an

“All America Research Team Rising Star” by Institutional Investor. Prior to that, Shannon was

part of BMO’s Consumer team covering the Broadlines and Hardlines retail sectors. This highly

regarded team was recognized by StarMine and received a number one ranking for stock

selection in Multiline Retail for both 2014 and 2011.

Prior to joining BMO in 2008, Shannon was a Vice President on the II-ranked Consumer team in

Credit Suisse’s Equity Research division where she covered the Hardlines retail sector.

Previously, Shannon spent a significant portion of her career at The Home Depot, holding

various managerial positions within Investor Relations, Store Operations, and Corporate

Finance. In 2007, she was promoted to a Director in Merchandising. Shannon began her career

as an Assistant Vice President in Equity Research at Prudential Securities covering the

Broadlines retail sector.

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Syed Natif Nawaz, Aurum’s CTO, brings over 22 years of global technology leadership to the forefront of next-generation data centers. Spearheading the firm’s vision, he oversees the entire technology lifecycle, from conception to implementation. With a proven track record in managing and building data centers across four continents for industry giants like Equinix, Nawaz combines technical prowess as a CCIE Emeritus and patent holder with a strategic vision in guiding acquisitions for growth and innovation.

A sustainable leader, he champions green initiatives and energy-efficient solutions, reflecting his commitment to a better tomorrow through technology. Nawaz is not only a sought-after speaker and thought leader in the data center industry but also the driving force behind Aurum’s dedication to constructing a future-proof data infrastructure.

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