Michael Tobin is one of the most high profile professionals in the data centre market having led Telecity Group plc as Chief Executive from 2002 to 2014. During this time, Michael transformed the company from GBP £6m market capitalisation to being a top performer in the FTSE250 valued at over GBP £2bn. Michael’s international experience in the data centre sector has continued to expand since then including his non-executive roles with Teraco in South Africa; Datapipe in the United States; Telvent Global Services in Spain; and Basefarm in Norway.
Prior to the sale of Pacnet to Telstra in April 2015, Michael was a non-executive director supporting the evolution of the business from a sub-sea cable operator into a regional data centre operator in Asia including in two major cities China. The scale of the market in China and its continuing high growth fits closely with Michael’s track record and reputation and in joining the Chayora Limited board in Hong Kong, Michael will take a key role in investor and customer relations and will provide sales support to the international account teams on a series of current major deals underway for Chayora.
Michael’s background at Telecity, together with Chayora Chairman Jim Ousley’s past experience as Chairman and CEO at Savvis prior to its acquisition by CenturyLink, combines with the strong senior executive team already in place at Chayora opening up extensive networks to major enterprise end users and cloud operators worldwide who are actively exploring efficient and assured entry routes into the huge Chinese online market.
Oliver Jones, Chief Executive of Chayora, commented, “We are very pleased to welcome Mike as a exceptional entrepreneur in the technology sector to Chayora. Our current multiple site developments across some of the most exciting cities in China are demanding and the rate of customer enquiries we are seeing requires high growth experience and insight to successfully manage. Mike’s personal knowledge of comparable past scenarios will be invaluable as we seek to support international corporations in accessing the Chinese market rapidly and cost effectively. Mike will also bring his highly respected commercial and service sector expertise to support the wider team at Chayora.”
Michael Tobin added, “I am looking forward to working closely with the Chayora team and sector-leading board colleagues in transforming the well recognised market opportunity in China into an accessible and key new market for many of technology’s leading companies. I have been involved in China over the last decade and have watched the rapid expansion of facilities and the development of new models and super-scale environments with interest.
I can see that the next ten years of innovative data centre developments in China could directly influence the international market as new approaches are deployed to world-class standards and in new larger platforms. I am also very excited by the opportunity that Chayora is addressing with its very firm focus on enterprise and major cloud requirements. Our ability to deliver premium quality environments comprising customer service and technical excellence is very strong and I look forward to us playing a part in the next enthralling chapter of China’s economic development.”
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For further information, media should contact:
Oliver Jones, CEO, Chayora +44 7802 985053, oliver.jones@chayora.com or
Jonathan Berney, COO, Chayora +852 9223 1446, jonathan.berney@chayora.com
Notes to Editors:
Chayora is a world-class infrastructure developer based in Hong Kong with a primary focus on building data centre platforms in China. Chayora enables international online companies to effectively access the vast and rapidly developing Chinese market.
China is the world’s fastest growing market for data centre facilities as the domestic population embraces online services nationwide. Currently half the Chinese population is online (c.650 million) with accelerating adoption and an expectation that usage levels comparable to the Western markets (85%+) will be achieved within five years.
Chayora is developing large, fully licensed data centre campuses in key locations across China – initially in Tianjin, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Nanjing / Southern Jiangsu – offering a range of options such as Powered Land / Powered Shell, Built-to-Suit, Assured Scalability and Wholesale Colocation services to international and major domestic enterprise end users, cloud service providers and retail collocation operators.
Two large powered shells are already available in Tianjin and Hangzhou offering 12MW+ initial capacity in each location.