Welcome to another episode of the Great Business Minds podcast, the definitive show for the business of digital infrastructure.

GBM is brought to you by Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry and the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Wherever your legal or regulatory needs are (including outer space) Preiskel & Co LLP can support you, so do feel free to reach out to them at www.preiskel.com.

On this week’s episode, we’re joined by a global data centre senior executive with over 20 years of experience in real estate, corporate finance, and operations.

Kok Chye Ong joined real estate private equity fund management firm Gaw Capital in 2021 as Managing Director – Head of IDC Platform, Asia (Ex-China). He spearheads Internet Data Centre (IDC) platform investments for Gaw Capital Partners outside of the China region.

Prior to joining Gaw Capital Partners, Kok Chye worked in the Keppel Group of companies for 10 years in a number of roles including being a Senior Vice President and since 2014, as the Head of Strategy and Global Investments at Keppel Data Centres, a regional data centre owner and operator with over 25 data centres spread across the APAC and European regions.

He has international experience in data centres, telecom and submarine cable development projects. He has strong track record in fundraising, growing data centre businesses in key markets in Asia and Europe, and leading investment teams to acquire data centres in Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany and in the Netherlands.

Kok Chye received his Bachelor of Accounting degree from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and graduated from the Sloan Fellows Program at Stanford University with a Master of Science in Management from the Graduate School of Business in 2007. He is a Chartered Accountant (CA) in Singapore and Fellow of CPA Australia (FCPA) and a member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accounts (ISCA) and CPA Australia.

Here at the GBM podcast, we hope you enjoy this episode and do leave us a review and share it with your contacts. We invite you back again for the next episode with another big name in the digital infrastructure space.

If you want to get more from the definitive podcast for the business of digital infrastructure, make sure you subscribe to Great Business Minds.

See you soon!

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This episode features our commercial partner Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry as well as the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Visit www.preiskel.com for more information.

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Get more from the GBM Podcast on:

Official Website

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

Welcome to another episode of the Great Business Minds podcast, the definitive show for the business of digital infrastructure.

GBM is brought to you by Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry and the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Wherever your legal or regulatory needs are (including outer space) Preiskel & Co LLP can support you, so do feel free to reach out to them at www.preiskel.com.

This week, we are joined by an entrepreneurial and competitive international leader focused on energetically growing business and building diverse high-performing teams.

Mark Smith co-founded and serves as the Executive Chairman for Qarbon Technologies since June 2022. Prior to this, he served as the Managing Director - Asia Pacific for Digital Realty from 2018 to 2022. And before that he held the position of Managing Director - Asia at Zettagrid.

Before these roles, Mark was the Managing Director - Cloud Services - Asia Pacific at VMware and he also held the position of Managing Director - Asia Pacific for CenturyLink (Formerly Savvis Inc.).

Mark’s earlier work experience includes serving as the President & Senior Company Officer - Japan at Thomson Reuters from 2007 to 2010, and as the Head of Sales - Asia Pacific from 2002 to 2007. He was the Global Head of Sales at eBridge from early 1999 to 2002.

Prior to these roles, Mark held the position of General Manager at Bridge Information Systems and served as the Head of Sales - Asia at SunGard from 1995 to 1997, and as a Major Account Manager at Knight Ridder Financial from 1991 to 1995.

He attended the University of Puget Sound, where he obtained a Bachelor's Degree. In 1987, he also briefly studied Mandarin at Tunghai University. Additionally, in 1988 to 1989, Mark Smith studied Mandarin at Beijing Normal University.

He joins us now from Tokyo where he lives with his family.

Here at the GBM podcast, we hope you enjoy this episode and do leave us a review and share it with your contacts. We invite you back again for the next episode with another big name in the digital infrastructure space.

If you want to get more from the definitive podcast for the business of digital infrastructure, make sure you subscribe to Great Business Minds.

See you soon!

///////////////////////

This episode features our commercial partner Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry as well as the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Visit www.preiskel.com for more information.

///////////////////////

Get more from the GBM Podcast on:

Official Website

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

Welcome to another episode of the Great Business Minds podcast, the definitive show for the business of digital infrastructure.

GBM is brought to you by Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry and the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Wherever your legal or regulatory needs are (including outer space) Preiskel & Co LLP can support you, so do feel free to reach out to them at www.preiskel.com

In this episode, we are joined by someone whose focus will change data centre construction and how mega projects are built.

A Fellow of Keble College, Dr Atif Ansar is a Senior Teaching Fellow on the Master of Sciences in Major Programme Management and the Australian Major Projects Leadership Academy (AMPLA). He is the Founding Director of the Oxford Programme on the Sustainable Future of Capital-Intensive Industries, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

Atif is also the Executive Chairman of Foresight Works – an Oxford based technology firm building next-gen software for the world’s megaprojects.

He has been at the University of Oxford since 2006 and until 2010, he undertook his DPhil (PhD), at Brasenose College, with the prestigious Clarendon Scholarship from Oxford University Press.

Atif was a post-doctoral research fellow at the BT Centre for Major Programme Management at Saïd Business School from 2010.

From 2015 until 2020, Atif was Programme Director of the MSc in Major Programme Management and continues to be one of the senior teaching fellows on the course’s faculty.

Atif also teaches on the UK and Australian Governments Major Projects Leadership Academy.

In 2018, Atif began an appointment as a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Global Projects Center and a Visiting Professorship at Tsinghua University.

He previously undertook his bachelor’s degree at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he majored in philosophy, politics, and economics.

Here at the GBM podcast, we hope you enjoy this episode and do leave us a review and share it with your contacts. We invite you back again for the next episode with another big name in the digital infrastructure space.

If you want to get more from the definitive podcast for the business of digital infrastructure, make sure you subscribe to Great Business Minds.

See you soon!

///////////////////////

This episode features our commercial partner Preiskel & Co, a leading award-winning City of London law firm, internationally recognised for its expertise in the digital infrastructure industry as well as the telecoms and tech sector work more broadly. Visit www.preiskel.com for more information.

///////////////////////

Get more from the GBM Podcast on:

Official Website

LinkedIn

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube