Benjamin Garrard

Key Accomplishments:

• Portfolio Leadership: Directed the operational integrity of a 30MW+ data center portfolio as the lead FTE, managing a comprehensive managed service labor force and multi-vendor colocation contracts.
• Strategic Expansion: Successfully commissioned and integrated ~20MW of new white space capacity, expanding the global footprint with zero disruption to live production environments.
• Lifecycle Management: Orchestrated the decommissioning of ~13MW of active critical space while maintaining seamless "Run the Business" (RTB) continuity for core data center operations.
• Availability Excellence: Sustained "Five Nines" (99.999%+) uptime for over five consecutive years—surpassing industry benchmarks—by navigating force majeure, hardware failures, and human error through elite incident management.
• Ecosystem Governance: Synchronized 3rd-party break/fix vendors and internal hardware owners to ensure 100% compliance with data center policies and standardized operational workflows.
• AI Infrastructure Strategy: Spearheading the architectural design and White Space integration for NVIDIA GB300 clusters, incorporating cooling and power scalability for next-generation silicon.
• Dual-Domain Authority: Act as the primary lead for all facility-level changes, incidents, and RFPs, leveraging deep technical proficiency in both White and Grey space to eliminate operational silos.
• Strategic Oversight: Drove product roadmaps, hardware selection, and new build-out strategies while simultaneously maintaining high-level site operations and reliability standards.

Key Accomplishments:

• Strategic Transitions & Project Leadership
• Corporate Divestiture: Handpicked to direct White Space management during a high-stakes Fortune 500 corporate separation, ensuring zero operational impact during the transition.
• Flagship Site Migration: Managed the end-to-end White Space program for a Fortune 500 flagship data center build-out, including the comprehensive migration of legacy site assets.
• Acquisition Integration: Served as the Program Management Lead during a corporate acquisition, architecting program enhancements and operational alignment with the new parent organization.
• Rapid Global Deployment: Successfully executed multiple, concurrent, time-sensitive builds across diverse international regions, consistently meeting all critical milestones.
• Global Operations & International Expansion
• International Standardization: Assumed white space engineering leadership of multiple international sites, driving alignment with global best practices and ensuring 100% compliance with local regulatory requirements.
• APAC/Australia Market Entry: Spearheaded the launch of new sites across APAC and Australia; navigated complex customs, regional codes, and localized compliance standards.
• Capacity Scaling: Managed multiple White Space expansions within active production environments totaling 10MW+ of additional capacity.
• Client Solutions: Orchestrated the build-out, commissioning, and operational transition of unique client spaces, including staff recruitment and onboarding.
• Governance, Standards & Quality Control
• Global Standard Authoring: Designed and implemented a comprehensive suite of Best Practice Standards and material specifications for global data center regions.
• Compliance Oversight: Established a Standards Audit Alignment program to verify compliance, identify operational gaps, and drive continuous infrastructure enhancements.
• Technical Product Review: Evaluated and approved hundreds of technical gear configurations to ensure perfect alignment with building MEP design and power distribution.
• Strategic Sourcing: Co-managed high-value vendor selection for critical infrastructure, parts, and specialized on-site support services.
• Audit Leadership: Directed vendor site inspections and material audits to enforce strict quality control and policy alignment across the supply chain.
• Program Administration & Tooling
• Tooling & Innovation: Led data center requirements for custom tool development, integrating automated data collection and system tracking for Fortune 500 clients.
• Fiscal & Contractual Design: Managed complex RFP responses and architected contract solutions for large-scale data center environments.
• Account Remediation: Selected as the Lead Program Manager to resolve sensitive customer relations issues, driving remediation and account recovery for high-priority clients.

Key Accomplishments:

• Regional Engineering Oversight: Served as the sole White Space Engineer with comprehensive technical responsibility for multiple regions simultaneously, ensuring infrastructure consistency across a diverse portfolio.
• Thermal Optimization & Remediation: Directed specialized airflow studies to identify and resolve trapped air and thermal hotspots within customer Hot Aisle Containment (HAC) solutions.
• Advanced Cooling Pioneer: Led the investigation and pilot testing of cutting-edge thermal solutions, including Direct-to-Chip (Liquid), Active/Passive Rear Door Heat Exchangers (RDHx), and immersion cooling.
• Technical Vetting & Integration: Acted as the technical gatekeeper for hundreds of gear configurations, validating that all integrated IT options aligned perfectly with building MEP design.
• Strategic Sourcing & Vendor Governance: Co-managed high-value vendor selection and established criteria for 3rd-party support teams operating within mission-critical white space.
• Quality Assurance Auditing: Conducted rigorous audits of rack manufacturers and fiber/infrastructure providers to ensure hardware met strict performance expectations.
• Performance Analytics: Architected and launched a Vendor Survey & Gap Analysis program to maintain vendor alignment with standards and expectations.
• Facility Engineering: Executed grey space maintenance and emergency response for mission-critical facilities.