Digital Realty Trust announced David Schirmacher's new role at Digital Realty Trust as Sr VP of Technical Operations.

Digital Realty Names David Schirmacher Senior Vice President of Technical Operations

Industry Veteran Brings Best-In-Class Experience to Lead Company's Global Technical Operations

Company Release - 01/03/2012 08:00

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a leading global wholesale datacenter provider, has named David Schirmacher Senior Vice President of Technical Operations. Schirmacher will be responsible for technical operations, uptime and reliability of Digital Realty's global portfolio of data center properties in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. He will report to Senior Vice President of Portfolio Management Dave Caron and will be based in the Metro New York region.

I've had the pleasure of many hours of conversations with David. For those you who are not familiar with David, here is his background.

Schirmacher joins Digital Realty from FieldView Solutions, a venture capital- backed software company focused on driving data center operational performance, where he was a principal and the Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to FieldView Solutions, Schirmacher was Vice President, Global Head of Engineering and Critical Systems at Goldman Sachs. During his 12+ years at Goldman Sachs, Schirmacher was focused on developing data center strategy and IT infrastructure for the company's headquarters, trading floor, branch offices and data center facilities around the world. Schirmacher has also held senior executive and technical positions at Compass Management and Leasing, and Jones Lang LaSalle.

Back in October David said he was thinking of making a big move. At 7x24 Exchange in Nov, David let me know of his new job and how it will be announced shortly. One of the things I told him is don't hurry on making the announcement as he was about to leave on a week cruise after the event, so he wouldn't be reachable and when he returns the thanksgiving holidays start the slow news period. So, guess what Jan 3, 2012, the press announcement goes out from Digital Realty Trust. When David told me of the news of his new role as Sr VP of Technical Operations, he told me the story of how Digital Realty had asked for people he thought of who could do the job. He threw the names out, but Digital Realty kept on coming back to see if he would take the job. David was returning to his past like jobs he had in real estate operations he had at Compass Management and Jones Lang LaSalle. The image came to mind is like a boomerang that comes back. It takes skill to throw a boomerang to come back.

David has his share of data center skills, and is one of the great guys to discuss new ideas. The Digital Realty press release chooses to emphasize David's strength of thought leadership.

Considered a thought leader within the data center industry, Schirmacher has held a leadership position at 7x24 Exchange International, served on the Technical Advisory Board of Mission Critical Magazine, and spoken widely at industry conferences.

I've had the luxury of knowing David's change would be announced in the new year. And, as expected he has a lot of phone calls today.