On this episode of the Nomad Futurist Podcast, Phil and Nabeel are joined by Tesh Durvasula , CEO at Africa Data Centers . Tesh is an experienced technology and real estate executive with a 25-year track record of successful leadership and value generation in the digital infrastructure sector. He kicks off the episode by giving listeners some insight into the company and its future plans: “And so for the last 16/17 months, I've been CEO of Africa Data Centers, and our primary focus is to be the ...
Jun 05, 2023•49 min•Season 4Ep. 11
This episode, Nabeel and Phil are joined by Director of Platform Networking at Netflix, Shweta Saraf . At Netflix, Shweta leads Platform Networking teams that are responsible for building various components of the network, like the cloud gateway, the cloud networking stack, network as service platform and service mesh. Growing up in India, Shweta had the American Dream of traveling to the US and advancing her degree. Her dreams eventually came true and she became the first person in her family t...
May 15, 2023•33 min•Season 4Ep. 10
In this episode, Nabeel and Phil are joined by a father-son duo well versed in the world of tech, the Farneys. Sean Farney is Executive Director, Data Center Strategy & Innovation at JLL , responsible for driving strategy and innovation across JLL's global data center business. His son, Conall Farney , is currently a senior at Purdue University and has an Engineering Project Manager internship at Dragos, Inc , an industrial cybersecurity company on mission to safeguard civilization. Before g...
May 01, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 9
In this episode, Nabeel and Phil are joined by Luke Kipfer , Vice President, Data Center Development and Construction at American Real Estate Partners . Luke is a project management professional with 15+ years of leadership experience providing strategic direction and successful execution within the construction industry. Luke started working at the young age of 17, fresh out of high school, creating the foundation for a successful career. “If there’s one thing my dad drilled into me, it was wor...
Apr 17, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 8
In this episode, Nabeel Mahmood and Phil Koblence sit down with Adam Knobloch , Global Director, Data Centers at Bisnow. Adam has been with Bisnow for almost six years, where he currently leads the company’s global Data Center & Cloud IT event platform strategy. You may be familiar with the Datacenter Investment Conference & Expo (DICE) Series , which is Bisnow’s regional series covering all of the major markets in the industry, aiming to bridge the gap between data center real estate an...
Apr 03, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Nabeel Mahmood and Phil Koblence are joined in this episode by Afonso Salema, CEO of Start Campus. Afonso is responsible for the development of the SINES Project by Start Campus, which aims to create one of the largest sustainable European data centers in Sines, Portugal. Prior to Start Campus, Afonso spent 15 years in investment banking in London, New York, and Madrid, covering the renewable energy, energy and infrastructure sectors. The Nomad Futurist team asks Afonso what led him to this indu...
Mar 20, 2023•36 min•Season 4Ep. 6
In this episode, Nabeel and Phil are joined by Jim Grice, a lawyer who leads the data center and digital infrastructure team at Akerman LLP law firm. As the Nomad team always says, this is the youngest industry with the most sub-verticals, and being a lawyer is one of them. You can, for example, start as a finance guy, get into real estate, then end up here - and Jim is a perfect example of it. Jim outlines how his career path unfolded and what skills allowed him to end up where he is today, “Le...
Mar 06, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 5
In this episode, Nabeel Mahmood and Philip Koblence are joined by Mary Stanhope, Chief Commercial Officer of Unitas Global and founder of iMarket2. Mary spent the last 25 years working for start-ups and global enterprises refining the best practices to understand what customers want, to craft clear messaging and winning stories that engage buyers, and to grow businesses and product lines to the next level. After exploring her passions in the art industry, Mary found herself in the digital infras...
Feb 20, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In this episode, Nabeel and Phil are live from Hawaii at PTC’23 with industry veteran Ilissa Miller. Ilissa is CEO and Founder of iMiller Public Relations, an award-winning Public Relations and Marketing consultancy firm supporting the global digital infrastructure industry, and a longtime partner and ambassador of the Nomad Futurist Foundation. Ilissa comes from a family in the music industry and originally went to school to train as an opera singer until she decided to take control of her own ...
Feb 06, 2023•34 min•Season 4Ep. 3
In this episode, Nabeel and Phillip are joined by Chris Downie, an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Chris is currently CEO of Flexential but has been in the data center business for 16 years. Prior to that, he was in the emerging technology domain as a CFO. Phillip asks if Chris’s personality is what drove his ability to navigate his previous position as a CFO, or a particular skill that he learned wit...
Jan 23, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 2
In this episode, Nabeel Mahmood and Philip Koblence are joined by Susanna Kass, a computer scientist and thought leader in cloud sustainability with a passion for reaching carbon neutrality. As a young girl from Hong Kong, living at boarding school in London, Susanna became intrigued by computers and programming. Nabeel inquires what the turning point was that made her realize she wanted to learn more about this subject, “What clicked for me was the fact that I could communicate what I had in my...
Jan 09, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 1
As the year comes to a close, Nomad Futurist Nabel Mahmood and Phil Koblence take time to reflect on the past twelve months; everything 2022 has brought to the Foundation and some predictions for what 2023 has in store. 2022 brought along incredible partnerships, sponsorships and podcast guests, all of which helped Nomad Futurist drive their message forward: “This was very much a year of building the underlying principles that we stand for as a foundation for what we’re trying to accomplish and ...
Dec 19, 2022•21 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Nomad Futurist is delighted to welcome Emma Grace Myers, sales representative for Honeywell Building Technologies in the Data Center Vertical, for a podcast episode focused on navigating the data center industry through the lens of the younger generation. Nomad Futurist had the pleasure of meeting Myers in Texas at a conference, and when we learned her story, we felt it fit in perfectly with what we've been trying to share with the world. In her own words: "I like to say this industry found me r...
Dec 05, 2022•33 min•Season 3Ep. 23
Nomad Futurist is delighted to welcome Carrie Goetz, a pioneering woman in technology, data center champion, and advocate for diversity, back for a second podcast episode focused on her timely and exciting new book — Jumpstart Your Career in Data Centers. Goetz’ impetus for writing the book maps closely to the reason Nomad Futurist was founded — to address a data center talent shortage by raising awareness of the industry and helping break down barriers that are contributing to the problem. “A t...
Nov 21, 2022•18 min•Season 3Ep. 22
In this thoughtful Nomad Futurist podcast, we learn how Dave Perez’s unusual background in Hotel and Restaurant Management laid the foundation for his wide-ranging technology career and experience in building construction across a broad set of industries including the critical infrastructure space, renewable energy, manufacturing, microelectronics, and life sciences. Perez grew up in a Cuban household in Miami with a father who was a mathematician and chemist, and a mother who was a psychologist...
Nov 08, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Elya McCleave has been taking risks her whole life. In this fascinating Nomad Futurist podcast, McCleave shares her inspiring journey from Uzbekistan to Canada where she is now the Founder of Innovorg, a SaaS company dedicated to helping businesses optimize employee and customer success. McCleave’s journey was fueled by her vision and determination to actualize her potential. She discusses with Phil and Nabeel the many challenges she faced including assimilation into a foreign culture, learning ...
Oct 24, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 20
From surfboard to snowboard to board of directors, Quantum Loophole’s CEO Josh Snowhorn has always been able to catch the next wave. Join this highly entertaining Nomad Futurist podcast to hear the story of a passionate industry leader, innovator and sports enthusiast who finds exciting synergies that keep him at the forefront of the critical infrastructure industry. Snowhorn grew up as a scion of the successful Neiman Marcus family and the happy child of highly educated parents who lived a hipp...
Oct 10, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 19
In this insightful Nomad Futurist interview, we hear about the remarkable career of Stephen Scott, currently CEO of Datalec, a UK based datacenter construction company. With expertise across engineering, sales, management and finance, Scott provides a unique, decades-long perspective on the evolution of the industry and its future direction. Scott served as an officer in the Royal Navy where he worked in communications and pursued multiple engineering degrees. After retiring from the Navy, he mo...
Sep 19, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 18
In this unusual Nomad Futurist podcast, Nabeel and Phil chat with Rob Shanahan whose phenomenal journey as a rock and roll photographer, drummer, and keynote speaker shines a light on the importance of being oneself, having an open heart, and fearlessly connecting with others in the pursuit of one’s dreams. Shanahan grew up in Minnesota where he got his first drum kit at age 10 and his first camera at age 13.After obtaining a degree in accounting and finance, he decided to go for broke and loade...
Sep 06, 2022•36 min•Season 3Ep. 17
In this fascinating Nomad Futurist Podcast, Tom Brennan, the Americas Executive Director of CREST, a cybersecurity company, speaks with Nabeel Mahmood and Phil Koblence about his life as a public interest technologist. Brennan has been intrigued by technology ever since he was a child growing up on Long Island. His early exposure to computers dates to his grandfather bringing home two Televideo TS-802H machines which he disassembled and reassembled. He began to play some of the first interactive...
Aug 22, 2022•49 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Can one still pursue a technology career without having technical education? In this engaging Nomad Futurist podcast Allison Boen, President of Alcatex Data Center Services and a certified DCEP, shares her dynamic career journey from a girl with a business administration degree to one of the top 25 women in technology. Boen, the OG of Data Center, did not begin her career in the tech sector. Instead, she chose Business Administration as her major because everyone in the 1980s did. Boen started h...
Aug 01, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 15
In this dynamic Nomad Futurist podcast, Dean Nelson, an alum of Sun Microsystems, eBay and Uber, and Founder and Chairman of Infrastructure Masons, shares his immense enthusiasm for the digital infrastructure industry that serves as the fundamental underpinning of our modern world. After a brief stint doing temp work out of high school, Nelson got an associate’s degree in electronics from DeVry. He was recruited to work for Sun Microsystems where he learned technology, business, strategy and peo...
Jul 18, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In this lively Nomad Futurist podcast, Phil and Nabeel speak with KC Mares whose passionate interest in achieving energy efficiency has fueled a remarkable career in the data center space and beyond. Mares is a dynamic data center leader who has headed major development projects and data center builds for an impressive roster of companies including Google, Equinix and Yahoo. Recently he led design teams and achieved massive deployments of cutting-edge technology for Tesla. Energy efficiency was ...
Jul 05, 2022•48 min•Season 3Ep. 13
For our very first father/son interview, Nomad Futurist welcomes Tony Grayson, a critical infrastructure leader and former Submarine Commander and his son Aiden Grayson, an IT entrepreneur and consultant. Together they offer some unique perspectives on a range of subjects including the Navy, technology, and entrepreneurship. The Graysons comes from a military family. Tony Grayson’s grandfather was a WWII pilot who was shot down, spent a month on a raft in the Pacific and washed up on an island! ...
Jun 20, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 12
What does it take to be successful in sales for the IT industry? Tim Arpin, Regional Sales Manager for NY/NJ at Service Express, a data center maintenance company, has a candid conversation with Phil and Nabeel about the world of sales — the good and the bad — and what he loves about providing value through consultative sales for the data center industry. Arpin always had a natural proclivity for sales. While in his teens he started selling golf equipment in a sporting goods store. He then worke...
Jun 06, 2022•31 min•Season 3Ep. 11
In this Nomad Futurist podcast, Bill Skinner, Operations Services Manager at Bloomberg LP, shares a dynamic journey highlighted by a commitment to constant learning in the critical infrastructure space — a path that has led him to operationalize training programs at Bloomberg and serve as a data center evangelist within the tech community through his position as President of the NYC/NJ metro chapter of AFCOM. Skinner had a natural proclivity for tech from an early age. His first computer was a T...
May 23, 2022•29 min•Season 20Ep. 10
What’s it like to be a facilities manager running the IT infrastructure of a leading global research university?In this engaging Nomad Futurist podcast, Raymond Parpart, Director of Data Center Operations and Strategy at the University of Chicago shares a journey that led from theater to technology and draws us into the fascinating world of critical infrastructure and supercomputers within a multi-faceted academic environment. Parpart, a theater major, began his career working on the road doing ...
May 09, 2022•29 min•Season 3Ep. 9
In this fascinating, wide-ranging Nomad Futurist podcast, Sarah Keller talks about how following a series of interests including business, project management, standards, and data centers led her to becoming Head of Technology Sourcing and Supply Chain at Uber. She shares her insights about the current state of the global supply chain, and her assessments of future challenges in the space. After an initial interest in opera, Keller became a business major as she felt this would be helpful in what...
Apr 25, 2022•48 min•Season 3Ep. 8
In this special #NomadFuturist episode recorded at Data Center World on 03/30/2022, Phil and Nabeel invite Bill Kleyman back to the podcast to share his unique perspective on the conflict in Ukraine. Kleyman himself is a refugee whose family left Ukraine around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Listen to his first podcast for details of that extraordinary journey. Kleyman shares his heartfelt perspective and concern for family members, friends and colleagues who ar...
Apr 11, 2022•37 min•Season 3Ep. 7
In this upbeat #Nomad Futurist podcast, Ron Vokoun, Director of Critical Facilities for OAC Services, shares his dynamic story with Phil and Nabeel, shedding light on the world of data center construction — from construction management to finding the right skilled trades people, building teams, being an owner’s rep, and advocating for the customer. After an initial attempt at engineering studies and a stint as a laborer on a construction crew, Vokoun obtained a degree in construction management ...
Mar 21, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 6
