For the first time, Stephen Whatling, Executive Vice President Strategy and Business Development at Supernap International will be on stage during the Grand Gala Golden-I on May 15, 2014.

Stephen Whatling is responsible for driving the growth of the business, working closely with the company’s local partners and identifying opportunities and new markets. Stephen has over 25 years of experience in the construction and property arenas specializing in the last 15 years in complex data center development globally where he has a wealth of experience both as a consultant and client.

Formerly Stephen was the Director for Development and Construction in Europe for Digital Realty Trust where he was involved in developments in Ireland, France and the UK as well as the deployment of two large highly resilient data centers for a major bank in the UK.

Most recently Stephen was an Executive Director at Hurley Palmer Flatt where he had been assisting major global organizations to plan and execute their data center strategies, he was actively involved in the deployment of data centers not only in the UK but in locations such as Canada, USA and Sweden. He has advised government bodies on market drivers and catalysts for attracting inward investment for data center development. He has worked extensively with the investment community advising on and carrying out due diligence for acquisitions and investments in the data center market.

As an acknowledged industry expert he has been an active speaker at conferences in Europe and the US on topics such as data center design, outsourcing and risk. He has had a number of papers published on data center issues and trends. Stephen is the co-author of the Data Centre Risk Index which was a ground breaking piece of research which was produced to give for the first time guidance on the potential risks involved with locating in certain countries. The Index currently ranks 30 countries globally as data center locations looking at a variety of risks such as power availability, natural disasters, economic and political stability and connectivity.

Stephen originally qualified in mechanical engineering in London.