AFCOM, the world’s leading data center association, named the 2013 finalists for its annual “Data Center Manager of the Year” award, nominating Tate Cantrell, chief technology officer for Verne Global; Donna Manley, senior IT director, computer operations at the University of Pennsylvania; and David Shaw, senior vice president of IO. The award will be given at the Data Center World spring conference.

These data center professionals are being honored for their outstanding leadership and excellence in the field. “We received many submissions this year for the DCMY award and like in the past the selection was difficult. These three individuals stood out at as leaders for their companies and have shown a high level of commitment to the Data Center industry,” said Tom Roberts, president of AFCOM and chairperson of Data Center World. “Their methods, innovations and contributions inspire all of us to keep moving forward toward continual improvement.”

TATE CANTRELL
Verne Global

Tate Cantrell, Chief Technology Officer at Verne Global

Notable Achievement: Verne Global’s Icelandic campus is the industry’s first efficient, sustainable, recyclable, zero emission data center.

Tate Cantrell is responsible for product design and development, and data center operations. Mr. Cantrell has overseen the build-out and operations of some the largest and most sophisticated data centers in the industry.

• 15+ Years’ Experience
• 25 Staff Members
• Innovative designs utilizing geothermal and hydroelectric energy for power and cooling
• ISO 27001 Certification Standard for Information Security

DONNA MANELY
U of Penna

Donna Manley, Senior IT Director at the University of Pennsylvania

Notable Achievement: University of Pennsylvania is the only Ivy League University Data Center with ISO 9001:2008 certification and HIPAA, PCI, and FISMA compliancy

Donna Manley is a senior IT director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Information Systems and Computing (ISC) Systems Engineering and Operations organization. Ms. Manley evaluates evolving technologies and the changing demands of the Penn community, finding creative ways to prolong the life of the existing Data Center well beyond the expected capacity limits. Despite several additions to the Computer Operations’ services portfolio, process reengineering and workflow automation strategies have resulted in sustained staffing and budget levels over an eight year period.

• 25+ years’ experience Data Center Management in various industry verticals
• 28 Staff Members
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) V2 and V3 Certified – Foundations
• President – AFCOM Mid-Atlantic Chapter (6 years)

DAVID SHAW
IO

David Shaw, Senior Vice President at IO

Notable Achievement: Manages over 1.5 million square feet of data center capacity – including the world’s largest modular data center.

As Senior Vice President at IO, David Shaw is responsible for IO’s global Data Center as a Service (DCaaS™). Mr. Shaw oversaw the opening of the world’s largest modular data center, IO.New Jersey, in Edison, New Jersey, and ensured that the data center was 100 percent operational during Hurricane Sandy and in its aftermath in late 2012.

• 4 US data centers and currently implementing new data center in Singapore
• 50 Staff Members
• 25 years of global data center operations, engineering management & information technology experience
• Certified Specialist in Information Technology Infrastructure (ITIL)

More detailed bios on the Data Center Manager of the Year Finalists can be found at http://www.datacenterworld.com.

The Spring Data Center World 2013 will be held April 28 – May 2 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The schedule for the Spring 2013 Data Center World can be found at http://www.datacenterworld.com/spring2013/attend/schedule-of-events/.

To track the DCW conference on Twitter, follow @datacenterworld and search for the hashtag: #datacenterworld.