Australian Data Centres (ADC) has appointed three more senior executives to its national leadership team following the recent arrival of Mark Pont as chief executive officer.
Matt Holden has joined as chief operating officer, bringing more than 30 years of experience in the design, construction, commissioning and operation of high-performance data centres. He has also held senior executive roles across secure critical infrastructure, hyperscale cloud and AI environments. Most recently, Holden worked with leading hyperscale providers and supported numerous enterprise-level operators through his leadership running their facilities at CBRE Data Center Solutions.
Pont said Holden’s broad experience would provide ADC customers with “disciplined operations, guaranteed uptime and robust security.” He added: “Matt has an extensive track record serving both Australian Government and Defence clients, as well as major global hyperscale customers. His ability to navigate the unique needs of these sectors positions ADC to deliver tailored, high-assurance solutions across next generation data centre environments.”
Greg Gale has been appointed as chief information security officer (CISO). He previously held leadership roles at Microsoft, Cisco and the Australian Department of Defence, where he served as CISO and led the establishment of the Australian Cyber Security Centre. While at Microsoft, Gale was national security officer, spearheading the PROTECTED certification for Azure and Microsoft 365 — the first hyperscale cloud certification of its kind in Australia.
Pont said Gale’s experience would be instrumental in ensuring ADC’s sovereign security standards: “Greg played a central role in expanding Microsoft Azure’s footprint, overseeing the security and risk aspects of new region deployments tailored for government and regulated industries. He also led the development of security requirements and the design of secure cloud platforms and data centres to support high-security government workloads at the highest classification levels.”
Peter Adcock has joined as chief technology officer, bringing what Pont described as “deep engineering expertise and a proven track record of delivering large-scale data centres on schedule and aligned to customer requirements.”
Adcock is a published author and industry thought leader in sustainability and advanced cooling for AI data centres. He previously led the data centre design team for Arup and was Asia Pacific vice president of design and construction at Digital Realty for 12 years, overseeing 21 data centre developments across eight metropolitan areas in the region, delivering more than 5.2 million square feet and 350MW of built IT capacity.
Pont said: “Peter’s extensive experience perfectly aligns with ADC’s ambitious growth plans, enhancing our delivery capability and helping to de-risk highly advanced new campus builds. His leadership will be critical as we continue to scale our sovereign, AI-ready data centre footprint to meet the needs of our clients and Australia’s national capability.”
ADC executive chairman Rob Kelly said the appointments completed the senior management team under Pont’s leadership and positioned the company strongly for expansion. “ADC’s management team is now fully loaded, future-focused and ready to offer a new scale of flexible co-location and build-to-suit sovereign data storage solutions tailored to our customers’ long-term requirements, whether they are seeking agility, control or cost efficiency,” Kelly said.
