The Emerging Talent Award recognizes all the rising stars in our industry. These individuals are the future of this industry and the ones that are blazing their own trail. This group of people may not have been in the industry long, but in the time they’ve been with us, they have already made a huge impact.
The 2024 winners were selected by the iMasons Emerging Professionals Member Resource group
Scala Data Centers
Linesight
EdgeConneX
Stack Infrastructure
Sims Lifecycle Services
Benjamin Lundquist is the Director of Sales Engineering at CoreSite (NYSE: AMT), serving the company’s Mid-Atlantic and Southeast markets. He has over two decades of experience in network design, commercial real estate and sales engineering and holds a postgraduate degree in Data Centre Leadership and Management from Anglia Ruskin University. In his current role, Lundquist is responsible for driving engineering standards and innovating for efficiencies to benefit CoreSite customers.
As Vice President of Hyperscale Engineering at STACK Infrastructure, Adam Michaelis is pivotal in the success of the Client Solutions department and fosters team collaboration in support of hyperscale and cloud service provider clients. He collaborates with client executives on the sales team on product pitches in alignment with client needs and goals. He also coordinates the technical solutions for hyperscale opportunities and drives consistency across STACK’s platform of products and services.
Prior to his current role, Adam held various leadership positions within engineering at McKinstry, SoloPower, Inc., Solyndra, and AEC Professionals and Advani Engineering. Adam received a BA in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University and holds a Professional Engineering license of mechanical engineering in California.
Dr. Sanjay Basu has worked in technology for more than 30 years and currently leads the AI infra, Generative AI , and GPU Cloud Engineering teams at Oracle Cloud. Sanjay holds a Doctorate in organizational behavior and a double master’s in management & computer engineering. He is working on his second PhD in Artificial Intelligence. He is a Life Member of ACM, AAAI, AAAS, and IEEE, and a Fellow of IETE. He is a prolific writer and author of 5 technical books and holds 6 US patents.
Jonathan Tuil (JT) has more than 20 years of experience leading data center engineering & operations organizations across the U.S. and abroad. As Executive Director of DCOPS for IBM Cloud, JT is globally responsible for 24×7 DC operations in IBM’s Cloud business unit, including global DC capacity management, facilities management, asset management, supply chain logistics, business operations, sustainability & energy management. Prior to joining IBM, JT served as Sr Director of Data Center Engineering for Visa, where he was responsible for enterprise data center engineering initiatives, supporting the $8T/yr global payments business. Prior to Visa, JT led consulting engineering teams at Jacobs Engineering, as a licensed Professional Engineer in the data center design & construction industry, and as a commissioning agent prior to that. He holds a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering from North Dakota State University, an MBA from Virginia Tech University, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) Data Center & Cloud Committee.
Jon Nordmark is co-founder and CEO of Iterate.ai launched in 2013. 85% of Iterate’s 100-person team is technical, and 15% hold PhDs or MS degrees in AI. Iterate owns Interplay, a patented low-code AI software platform. Companies from a wide range of industries (retailers to banking and insurance) use it to build and operate AI solutions in the US, Europe, and Asia. Partners include chip companies and data centers because of Iterate’s ability to improve runtime and access to AI.
Before Iterate, Jon was the founder and CEO of eBags.com, a drop-ship, A/B testing, and ratings and reviews pioneer. The Company was acquired after it sold 29 million bags which produced $1.65 billion in revenue.
Jon’s recognitions include-Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year for the Rocky Mountain Region, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Colorado Technology Association, and LinkedIn’s Top Voice for the 20+ thought-leadership articles he wrote on emerging technologies.
An industry veteran with over 25 years of industry experience leading large-scale, transformational infrastructure and platform initiatives. John’s areas of expertise span a wide range of disciplines, including networking (service provider and home), cloud, software development, and embedded systems, to name a few. Currently, John leads a team of brilliant engineers designing and developing operationalized hardware systems that are fueling the growth of the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform. Previously, John worked at Philadelphia-based startups focused on software product development to advance and scale the deployment of cable broadband and enterprise network management.
Jim Julson has over twenty years of industry experience in network engineering, network architecture design, systems administration, and systems engineering. Currently Jim is the Director of Networking at CoreWeave where he actively works on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and GPUaaS Cloud. Previously, Jim has network senior level networking positions at Digital Ocean, Dell EMS, Virtuestream, Marketron, Nexiant, and Capital One Auto Finance. Jim is passionate about of all things automation, orchestration, Next-Gen, and that which serves to enable massive scale and growth with genuine ease of ownership, and stability.
Nathan Benton has over 20 years of experience enabling sales teams to increase their Data Center IT infrastructure revenue. Recently, utilizing Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM tools, Nathan led a team of GLOBAL sales professionals in solving IT infrastructure challenges in Cloud IaaS and SaaS data centers enabling high-speed, low-latency applications. Previously, Nathan was VP, Field Application Engineering where he transformed a team of engineers into a highly persuasive technical selling organization. By focusing on consultative, application-based selling over product sales and technically enabling the sales force, the team’s efficiency and close rate increased exponentially.
Matt Archibald is the Director of Technical Architecture at nVent, supporting the data center and networking space. Matt is deeply focused on liquid cooling (close-coupled and direct-to-chip), unified infrastructure management, data center monitoring, and automated data center infrastructure management. Previously, Matt was the Global Installation & Planning Architect for Lenovo Professional Services and spent over 15 years in the data center space. Previous to this, Matt worked as a development engineer in the IBM System x and BladeCenter power development lab, doing power subsystem design for BladeCenter and System x servers. Matt holds 97 patents for various data center and hypervisor technologies. He holds four degrees from Clarkson University in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, and Computer Science and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics Engineering from Auckland University of Technology.
Phill has more than 25 years of experience identifying new opportunities for further growth of leading data center infrastructure, network architecture, and cloud solutions in the U.S. and abroad. As Chief Innovation and Technology Officer at Aligned, Phill is responsible for the management of revenue generation and profitability objectives, as well as championing key innovation, technology, and sustainability strategies aimed at maximizing new business development. Prior to joining Aligned, Phill served as Chief Innovation Officer at EdgeConneX, where he was instrumental in driving strategies focused on creating the next generation of network edge-based data centers for the digital content ecosystem. Throughout his career, Phill has also served in numerous senior executive-level positions at Virtacore, Alcatel-Lucent, Savvis (now CenturyLink Technology Solutions), and MCI (now Verizon Digital Media Services). He currently holds eight active technology patents and serves on the Board of Directors for Netrality Data Centers as well as the Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) Advisory Board.
Steve Altizer has nearly four decades of experience building some of the world’s most sophisticated government and commercial facilities. In 2002, Altizer founded the Andrew Browning Group (now Compu Dynamics). Before that, he served as a senior executive with several nationally ranked general and mechanical contractors. Throughout his career, he has been a student of and thought leader in the technology and science behind today’s modern building environments. This interest has naturally led to an affinity for clients whose requirements drive them toward facilities that are smart, clean, safe, reliable, and secure. His focus for the last 23 years has been exclusively on data centers ranging in size from 20kW to over 100MW. Steve earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Virginia.
Vinay Nagpal has been leading the development of digital infrastructure solutions on a global scale for over 28 years. As the CEO of InterGlobix, a global consultancy, advisory, and media firm advancing digital infrastructure and leading economic growth, he has led global initiatives focused on the convergence of data centers, subsea fiber, and terrestrial fiber. Vinay has been a former executive with Digital Realty, DuPont Fabros Technology, TATA Communications, Verizon Business, UUNET, CanWest Global Communications, and Intrinsyc Software. He is currently part of leadership and advisory teams for the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC), Loudoun County Economic Development, Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), Total Telecom Submarine Networks EMEA, DE-CIX, RTI Cables, SMU M.S. in Datacenter Systems Engineering, SubOptic, PTC and previously GPX India, LINX NoVA, the QTS Richmond NAP and the Open-IX Association.
Andrew Miller’s first data center job was helping build the data center for Uber’s self-driving car project. Subsequently, at Uber Compute, he was responsible for the next generation of infrastructure for Uber Compute. Currently, Andrew is the NGC Staff Cloud Foundation Engineer at NVIDIA. NVIDIA NGC is the hub for GPU-optimized software for deep learning, machine learning, and HPC that provides containers, models, model scripts, and industry solutions so data scientists, developers, and researchers can focus on building solutions and gathering insights faster.
Jason M. Black (JB) is the Director of Cloud & Edge Datacenter Engineering at NVIDIA. He leads the teams that are driving the delivery of NVIDIA’s end to end datacenter-related infrastructure that power today’s most comprehensive Cloud and Edge Datacenter deployments. Formerly Dr. Black was at Uber Technologies where he was the Head of Global Network Infrastructure covering Data Center, Backbone, POP, and Cloud for the Production and Advanced Technology Group networks. Prior to his time at Uber Technologies, he was the Sr. Director of Network Engineering and Operations at Yahoo! He is a technology and business visionary with hands-on experience in growing multi-billion-dollar web scale companies as well as his previous start-ups.
Jaclyn Schmidt, Director of Product Deployment is the driving force behind our Professional Services department at CoolIT, bringing scalable liquid cooling solutions to demanding High Performance Computing and enterprise computing environments. Jaclyn and her team are focused on delivering end-to-end solutions, utilizing CoolIT’s products and providing the necessary services to ensure seamless data center installations and commissioning. Her dedication enhances product efficiency and optimizes performance, ensuring peak operation throughout the lifetime of each liquid cooling system. Originally a Mechanical Engineering graduate with a passion for developing innovative engineering solutions for complex on-site challenges, Jaclyn has led the Professional Services Team to become a leading force in the liquid cooling industry.
Jason Carolan leads Flexential’s customer-driven innovation and advisory programs office, providing leading insights to product and technology evolution in a dynamic industry. Operationally, Jason keeps grounded by leading our information technology and security teams, enabling new products and services. He and his team are responsible for developing insights on what’s next on the horizon to further position the company to empower enterprise’s hybrid IT journeys. He joined the company in 2011 and has held various roles in product, operations and technical management. Jason has more than 25 years of experience in leadership positions in product architecture, software engineering, technical sales and support across a variety of companies, including Sun Microsystems, where Jason was honored as a Distinguished Engineer, VMware and the Mayo Clinic. Jason was the lead author of “Building N1 Grid Solutions,” one of the first books highlighting the combined use of virtualization and automation. He also has several patents in networking, data center resource management, virtualization and security. He has a bachelor’s degree from Luther College and a master’s degree from Western Governor’s University.
As a seasoned Sales Executive in the dynamic realm of Immersion Cooling, George Gehringer brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of driving success in the ever-evolving landscape of data center and high-performance computing solutions. His current role is with Submer out of Leesburg, VA as VP of Sales for North America and LATAM with the focus on developing Immersion Cooling Solutions tailored to Hyperscalers and Data Center Colocation. In this position at Submer, George continues to assist in redefining industry standards, forge strategic alliances, and lead the charge toward a future where efficiency and sustainability converge seamlessly. His dedication to client success cements Submer’s status as a trusted advisor and innovator in the immersive cooling landscape.
Allen has over 15 years of telecom industry experience across business development, network design, and sales engineering. Combining engineering expertise and a passion for entrepreneurship, Allen has fulfilled a variety of business development and sales engineering roles at Qwest, NTT and others, as well as strategy consulting for various regional interexchange transport networks in the Pacific Northwest region. Prior to joining MOX, Allen joined a start-up transit aggregator, Spectrum Networks and was instrumental in growing and selling the company to Wave Broadband in 2015.