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Connect | Virginia // DCD>Leadership Summit (November 4)

Why attend?

As the data center industry stands at the forefront of digital transformation, the DCD>Leadership Summit is the essential gathering for C-suite executives from colocation & cloud operators who are charged with driving the industry forwards.

This exclusive meeting encourages growth, innovation, and strategic leadership through a platform where industry leaders address key issues and share actionable insights.

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What to expect

Held under the Chatham House Rule, this closed-door summit ensures confidential boardroom discussions, focused on honing business strategy, and enhancing organizational impact and efficiency. Only C-suite executives (or equivalent decision-makers) from colocation & cloud operators are eligible to attend.

This gives you the opportunity to honestly discuss the current data center landscape with your peers, and deepen your understanding of future challenges and opportunities to ensure your business is at the forefront of industry evolution.

The agenda topics will be moderated by a subject-matter expert, who will guide the discussion in the room amongst all Leadership Summit delegates. This is not a traditional speaker-led panel; instead, all Leadership Summit delegates will have the opportunity to share their thoughts and collaborate with their executive peers in this small-group, interactive setting.

  • Strategic Insight: Gain a comprehensive understanding of the data center industry's trends and challenges through open discussions under the Chatham House Rule, enabling effective future planning and innovation.
  • Invaluable Networking: Connect with industry leaders to form strategic partnerships and collaborations, leveraging these relationships to enhance your organization's impact and growth.
  • Practical Solutions: Leave with actionable strategies and insights to tackle current challenges and improve efficiency, driving immediate and impactful changes within your organization.

Previous moderators include

Rhea Williams

Chief Commercial Officer, E3 Platforms

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Rhea Williams

Chief Commercial Officer, E3 Platforms

Rhea Williams is the Chief Commercial Officer of E3 Platforms, a new data center developer and operator in the US. She was most recently the Site Selection Principal for Oracle in EMEA focused on European markets. Rhea has worked for other providers such as Compass and NTT and started her career with Digital Realty on their Global Sales team. Prior to data centers Rhea was in commercial real estate sales and financial advisory.

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Phill Lawson-Shanks

Chief Innovation Officer, Aligned Data Centers

Phil_LawsonShanks

Phill Lawson-Shanks

Chief Innovation Officer, Aligned Data Centers

Phill Lawson-Shanks has more than 25 years of experience identifying new opportunities for further growth of leading data center infrastructure, network architecture, and cloud solutions in the U.S. and abroad. As Chief Innovation Officer at Aligned, Phill is responsible for the management of revenue generation and profitability objectives, as well as championing key innovation, technology, and sustainability strategies aimed at maximizing new business development.

Prior to joining Aligned, Phill served as Chief Innovation Officer at EdgeConneX, where he was instrumental in driving strategies focused on creating the next generation of network edge-based data centers for the digital content ecosystem. Throughout his career, Phill has also served in numerous senior executive-level positions at Virtacore, Alcatel-Lucent, Savvis (now CenturyLink Technology Solutions), and MCI (now Verizon Digital Media Services). He currently holds eight active technology patents and serves on the Board of Directors for Netrality Data Centers as well as the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) Advisory Board.

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Buddy Rizer

Executive Director, Loudoun County Department of Economic Development

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Buddy Rizer

Executive Director, Loudoun County Department of Economic Development

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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Rob Faktorow

Rob Faktorow

Vice Chairman, CBRE

Santiago Suinaga

CEO, Infrastructure Masons

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Santiago Suinaga

CEO, Infrastructure Masons

Santiago Suinaga, Chief Executive Officer of Infrastructure Masons, is a senior multi-cultural executive in the digital infrastructure industry, with 20 years of international business experience in more than 10 countries across data center design, critical operations, M&A, sales, finance and cost management in high growth markets. He most recently served as CEO of KIO Networks Data Centers.

Santiago joined iMasons as a member in 2020, has served as an Advisory Council member, and is a founding member of the iMasons Climate Accord. He previously was Mexico’s local chapter leader and a member of the LatinX Member Resource Group.

Santiago holds a dual MBA degree from the IPADE Business School and the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley. Santiago has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the Iberoamerican University.

Santiago’s Industry Certifications include Uptime Institute Accredited Tier Designer (ATD) and Accredited Tier Specialist (ATS), C-Net Certified Data Centre Design Professional (CDCDP) and Certified Data Centre Management Professional (CDCMP).

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