Digital Realty Trust’s Kris Kumar has been promoted from the head of the Real Estate Investment Trust’s Asia Pacific data center arm to Senior Vice President and Regional Head for APAC.

Kumar, who is based in Singapore, has long promoted the region’s suitability as a data center location.

“The economic story of the APAC in recent years has been highlighted by the generalized level of growth across its largest countries, including not only China and India but also Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong,” Kumar wrote in FOCUS magazine in 2011.

“The Singaporean economy, for example, was estimated to grow by 15% in 2010. This is particularly significant when compared to the sub-3% rate of growth experienced by the US and Europe during the same period.”

DRT has been keen on growth in the region in recent years, strengthening its own position there with a new data center in Melbourne announced last year and another in Sydney’s Erskine Park, valued at AU$100m.

It has also been building out its data center footprint in Singapore.

"Across Asia-Pacific we would like to see US$1bn deployed [in the next few years. Between US$250m and US$250m of that, at a minimum, will be for Australia . . . if not more," Kumar told FOCUS in 2010.

Under his new position, Kumar will be tasked with making sure this happens, developing new relationships with customers and partners across the region and identifying new investment opportunities.

He first joined Digital Realty Trust in May 2010 after spending 28 years working on data center projects for major corporate enterprises and international telecom and IT companies across the region.

He was a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Marine where he gained expertise in critical engineering systems.