techUK’s Data Centres Council strengthens team

techUK is delighted to welcome Paul Finch, COO of Kao Data, to the UK Council of Data Centre Operators.

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Named by Data Economy as one of the “Top Influencers in Data Centres, Cloud and Data”, Paul is a globally respected data centre thought-leader. 

His 30-year career includes key roles in Fortune 500, in REITs including CBRE and Digital Realty Trust, in engineering consultancy and project management. In total he has overseen the creation and execution of global developments exceeding £1.0bn in capital deployment and supporting over 200MW of technical space.

Paul is a Chartered Engineer, an IMechE Fellow and a member of ASHRAE. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Building Services Engineering, a PgDip in Engineering Management and is a graduate of the General Management Programme at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School.  In 2020 Paul was awarded Sustainability Champion and iMasons 100 Awards by the Infrastructure Masons and presented by the President of ASHRAE with the Global Technology Award for Industrial Facilities and Processes "for the outstanding achievement in the design and operation of energy efficient buildings" relating to the +£230m, 45MW, Kao Data campus.

About the Council:

techUK’s Data Centres Council comprises twenty individual members who represent the full spectrum of business interests and business models across the data centre sector.  Members include wholesale and retail colocation providers, cloud and hosting service and enterprise operators and range from multinationals to SMEs. The Council is a decision-making body providing strategic direction for all techUK’s activity relating to data centres.  Formal Terms of Reference provide governance for the group.

The Council was established in 2009.  Its primary objective is to provide a representative voice for the sector in policy matters.  The Council has delivered a number of significant outcomes for the UK data centre sector.  These include negotiating a Climate Change Agreement, limiting the impact of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, building a qualification framework to recognise professionalism in the sector, positioning the sector as a career destination of choice, demonstrating the economic value of the sector and demystifying data centres to policy makers across government. Most recently the Council, through techUK, succeeded in securing the inclusion of data centres on the list of key workers and as a result of our intervention, a dedicated data infrastructure resilience team has been established within DCMS.  The UK has the largest data centre market in Europe by a significant margin and as a result the Council also takes a close interest in EU policy developments impacting the sector, working with international counterparts to ensure that UK interests are properly represented.