Credit: NextDC
Publicly-listed NextDC has welcomed Equinix former CEO Stephen M. Smith to its board of directors.
Smith held the top position with Equinix from 2007 to 2018 playing a key role at transforming the co-location provider into an industry leader and the largest enterprise data centre platform in the world.
"I am very pleased to have been asked to join the company at such an exciting phase of its development," Smith said. "NextDC is playing a key role in the development of Australia’s digital economy and I am excited to have the opportunity to contribute to that.
"The NextDC team have organically built a data centre platform in the Australian market that is very well regarded globally, and I am looking forward to supporting the team."
During his tenure, Equinix grew from 17 data centres in 10 markets and a US$2 billion market cap of approximately 200 data centres with a US$38 billion market cap. In addition, Today the company operates in 24 countries on five continents and has undertaken 21 acquisitions in the process.
NextDC said it expects Smith's expertise to help the company in its next phase of expansion.
"Steve has an immense wealth of experience in the data centre sector having been at the forefront of the industry and the growth of the US technology sector over the last three decades," NextDC chairman Douglas Flynn said.
Smith is currently a managing director of GI Partners, a US-based investment fund focused on data centre, data transport, wireless and tech enabled infrastructure investments in the US.
Prior to his time at GI Partner and Equinix, Smith has held senior leadership positions at Hewlett Packard Lucent Technologies and Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS).
