Chayora, an international developer of hyperscale data centers in China, has expanded their executive team with former staff from Google, Microsoft, AWS and Digital Realty.
Tiger Zhou will join the Chayora team as Operations Director. He has held lead technical roles in Amazon Web Services in China as well as Microsoft China, Cisco and Ericsson. With over ten years of experience working in AWS data centers, Mr. Zhou has helped build and scale data centers in Beijing, Hong Kong and Ningxia.
Joining Mr. Zhou will be Mark Froelich, the new Programme Director for Chayora. Mr. Froelich has 20 years experience in data center projects for multinational corporations in the USA, APAC and European Union.
Previous to his Chayora appointment, he was Senior Director for Universal Creative, where he delivered their brand new high-tech theme park in Beijing. Mr. Froelich has also held senior positions for Google and AWS.
Finishing off the powerhouse hires is Lee Heng Aik Chuen (“AC”), who will be the new Technical Director for Chayora. Mr. Chuen has helped design and manage data center projects for over 20 years, including a number of large green field data centers ranging in size from 15 MW to 36 MW of load.
Mr. Chuen also has prior experience working for ST Telemedia and Digital Realty, setting up technical operation teams for seven large data centers in Asia.
“Chayora’s first data center in Tianjin, Greater Beijing has recently been completed and we are delighted to expand our team with these industry leaders of international pedigree,” said Jonathan Berney, Co-Founder and COO of Chayora.
The new data center was built at a cost of approximately US$1.5 billion and will host 300 MW of IT load. The facility is intended to be both carrier-neutral and cloud-neutral, connecting to big domestic providers like Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud, as well as AWS, Azure and other foreign players.
“We look forward to Tiger, Mark and AC strengthening our existing leadership team and progressing the next phases of our Tianjin hyperscale campus along with our imminent Shanghai data center facility which we will be announcing shortly to meet known customer needs,” celebrated Mr. Berney.
The new Shanghai facility will have over 280 MW of power and provide ultra-high speed connections of up to multiple 100Gbs.
Previous to these appointments, Chayora announced a new APAC office in Singapore and the appointment of James McCartney as their Executive Vice President of Sales in September 2020.
“Having James join our team is a recognition of Chayora’s continuing successful growth and enables us to expand particularly within the financial services and hyperscale cloud sectors and to develop meaningful long-term relationships with our customers operating out of Singapore”” said Oliver Jones, Co-Founder and CEO at Chayora.
Before Chayora, Mr. McCartney held a senior customer-focussed role leading a team of global specialists in developing cloud and data center strategies and solutions.
“This is a critical time when we’re seeing the greatest demand for digital infrastructure and mass adoption of cloud platforms, services, and solutions. Especially with regulatory changes that govern the financial services sector, I look forward to supporting our financial institutional customers to enable them to expand their business in greater China,” said Mr. McCartney.
Chayora is registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Hong Kong after being established in 2011.
UK private capital investor Actis Capital owns a 63% stake in Chayora Holdings after investing US$180 million in 2019. In September 2020, Actis Capital and South Korean conglomerate GS Group announced the formation of a joint venture to build a US$315 million data center in Seoul.
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Image credit: Chayora
