Our Team Brings Together
Top Names in The Industry

John Lucas is the Chief Executive Officer at Rowan Digital Infrastructure. John is our driving force on our mission to advance responsible investment and innovation in sustainable data center delivery.  John brings considerable experience in business development, renewables, carbon-free supply, and energy trading across global markets. Prior to joining Rowan, John held the position of Head of Renewables and Energy Procurement at AWS. At AWS, his team set the record for renewable energy procurement by a corporation two years in a row. John has also held commercial roles focused on global energy, renewable and infrastructure procurement at Meta (Facebook) as well as energy trading positions at Morgan Stanley and Shell Energy North America.

Dan McNary possesses decades of experience in professional engineering, consulting, and construction. With a career spanning 30+ years, he has consistently demonstrated expertise in leading the planning, design, construction, and technology fit-out of cutting-edge data centers, contributing to an impressive cumulative capacity of over 3 GW within the past 10 years alone.

Dan's remarkable track record includes steering the development of highly complex facilities and large data center campuses for industry giants such as Microsoft, AWS, Vantage, Nvidia, Tesla, Digital Realty, and other prominent partners.

Prior to joining Rowan, Dan held leadership positions where he directed construction management teams tasked with overseeing the development of substantial campus projects exceeding 250MW in Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Eastern Washington, and California, among other locations. Notably, he spearheaded the construction of over 25 million square feet of data center space and critical power/cooling infrastructure across diverse environments, including enterprise, hyperscale, co-location, and edge data centers.

Dan McNary is a Professional Engineer (PE) and holds General Contracting licenses in multiple states.

Charley Daitch joins Rowan as our Chief Commercial Officer.  Prior to Rowan, Charley was at AWS, where he led the Energy and Water strategy teams. In his time at AWS, Charley led an organization of 100 people and delivered gigawatts of energy, water, and information technology infrastructure across more than 20 countries. His team also built and scaled the world’s largest corporate renewable portfolio, with 164 utility scale wind and solar projects totaling more than 20GW of capacity. Charley brings to Rowan more than a decade of experience in infrastructure development, and utility-scale energy, water, and renewable solutions. Prior to AWS, Charley was the Business Development Lead at Puget Sound Energy.

Charley's integration into the Rowan team significantly bolsters our capability to effectively serve partners. Serving as a direct resource, Charley supports partners in strategic decision-making, development of customized solutions, and ensuring compliance adherence while aligning with their sustainability objectives. This empowers our partners to make well-informed decisions.

Sebastian Kurian is our Chief Legal Officer. Sebastian joined us from Google, where he served as Senior Counsel, focusing on data center site selection, acquisition, development, operations, power procurement, energy and utilities infrastructure, energy public policy, sustainability, economic development, community affairs, public relations, marketing, and colocation leasing. Prior to Google, Sebastian was the first utilities lawyer for Amazon Web Services. During his decade at Google and Amazon, Sebastian closed nearly 10 GWs of clean energy power purchases across five continents for the two largest corporate buyers of renewables in the world. Earlier in his career, Sebastian was the Assistant General Counsel of Clark Construction, one of the oldest and largest building and civil construction firms in the U.S. and a commercial real estate, construction and transactional finance associate at Amlaw 200 law firms. Sebastian graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland School of Law with honors and completed Yale's Financing and Deploying Clean Energy Certificate Program.

Kevin Mammel is responsible for leading the capital strategy of the company including large project financing. Kevin also has responsibility for accounting, financial planning and analysis and long-term planning.

Kevin brings over 30 years of experience across the telecommunications and technology industries, in corporate finance, treasury, accounting and capital markets. Prior to joining Rowan, Kevin spent nine years at Zayo Group, a fiber infrastructure company, where he held various roles in finance including reporting segment CFO and Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance. Before Zayo, Kevin was the CFO at Quark Software, and has held finance leadership roles at Qwest, Brocade and Skyetek.

Kevin has an MBA from the University of Colorado, and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Pennsylvania State University.

Julie Bixby is an experienced leader in data center site selection and development with 8 years of global experience in the hyperscale data center industry. Prior to leading data center site selection efforts, Julie worked on a variety of projects as a consultant and government representative including large scale energy and transportation infrastructure developments, sustainability planning, local land use plans and policies, and development regulations. Her passion is tying sustainability and environmental protection with the needs of growing industries and transformative developments.  At Rowan, Julie leads our site origination team, helping us identify and assess new sites for our portfolio.

Jessie Bristow is a real estate development professional with over ten years of experience working in both private and public sectors. He is part of the site development team and is responsible for bringing projects through due diligence and entitlements to the start of construction. Jessie earned his master's degree in urban planning from San Jose State University and has his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Prior to joining Rowan, Jessie developed mixed-use and multi-family apartments, senior care, and assisted living facilities, as well as commercial and industrial projects throughout the Monterey Bay Region and Silicon Valley.

Olen Chenault has 40+ years of construction and consulting experience involving fossil, PV solar, geothermal, bio fueled and solar thermal power generation plants along with mining, refining and other industrial projects. Projects have been both domestic and international. Some of the roles have included Owner's representative, site manager, project manager, commissioning manager, construction manager and quality manager.

Chad Clyburn is an accomplished and creative Program Manager offering years of success delivering IT projects through effective performance measures and cost control. Chad has in-depth experience within a multitude of customer adoption scenarios, building innovative solutions, and modernizing legacy applications within Fortune 500 environments. Chad holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in project management from Colorado Technical University.

Jordan Crandall heads legal support for our engineering, construction, and operations teams. He has 15 years’ experience as a construction attorney, including seven years leading a hyperscaler’s global construction legal team. Jordan has experience managing complex issues, from contracts through to compliance, insurance, policy, and procurement.

Gary Cudmore is our head of Sustainable Engineering & Construction. Gary brings over 35 years of international experience in the design, engineering, and construction of energy efficient, high-reliability and resilient data centers. Gary has strong leadership and project management skills, as well as experience maneuvering complex technical solutions and owner project requirements. Before joining Rowan, Gary provided subject matter expertise for organizations such as IBM, Dell, and Unysis. His international experience includes projects in Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, U.K., Ireland, India, South Korea, and Thailand.

Patrick Dillow is Rowan's Director of Energy, leading the team responsible for end to end utility power infrastructure delivery and carbon free energy development for Rowan's portfolio of data centers. He is a data center and energy professional, experienced in technical program and project management, mission critical operations, and energy development across the military, government, and data center industries. Patrick holds master's degrees in Business Administration and Business Analytics from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Prior to joining Rowan, he served 11 years as an active duty Naval Officer and qualified nuclear submariner, after which he led the energy infrastructure and procurement teams for western North America at AWS, delivering hyperscale data centers and associated energy infrastructure and supply.

Brian Galvin is the Director of Site Origination and in his role, he navigates the intricacies of project critical paths with finesse and effectiveness. He takes a multifaceted approach, blending a keen understanding of critical issues, strategic recommendations, and concise communication methods. Understanding the importance of fostering collaboration he consistently makes informed decisions that align with the overall company objective for profitability and consistent growth. Prior to joining the Rowan team Brian was the Site Selection Manager for another data center hyperscaler builder.  He also brings over 20 years of real estate development experience. Brian holds a dual degree in sociology and psychology from St. Louis University and is a United States Marine veteran.

Dylan Gardner is an experienced land development project manager with nine years of experience across the western US. From residential and multi-family projects in Oregon and Washington, to large scale mixed-use developments in Colorado. He is part of the Site Development team with the role of bringing data center projects through the due diligence phase to the entitlements and start of construction. Prior to joining the workforce, Dylan got his education at Oregon State University, with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

Marcel Garza is a Site Origination Senior Manager with over 20 years of experience in developing large commercial mixed-use projects and he is responsible for site selection, site evaluation, and acquisition for Rowan's development pipeline. He is recognized as a multi-category Top-10 development lead by the Austin Business Journal and apart of the team honored with the Best Multifamily Project award in 2021. Marcel is deeply involved in community leadership roles. He serves as a technical advisor for ULI Austin and the Austin Transit Partnership, co-founded the ULI Austin Transit Oriented Development board, and is a member of the ULI Austin Technology Council. Additionally, Marcel contributes to the City of Austin as a Board of Adjustments member and serves as Vice President of the Kyle Plumb Creek Municipal Utility District.

Xiomara Gerlach is our green infrastructure development leader. She plays a critical role in acquiring and developing suitable sites to serve our data center clients. Xiomara or “Xio” as she likes to be called, brings over 15 years of experience in the renewable energy and green data center development arenas. She has led projects from inception to completion totaling in hundreds of MW of wind and solar generation power. She actively engages with various stakeholders, including government bodies, local communities, utilities, and our clients, to build positive relationships and outcomes.

Kirstin Gunderson brings over 16 years of experience as a program and operations leader with a strong focus on renewable energy. She is passionate about people and nature and driven by the strong belief that our most important work lies in where the two intersect. She excels at building and engaging teams while establishing functions that drive organizational growth. Kirstin has a proven history of successfully delivering complex data center and renewable energy projects at corporate giants including Meta and Walmart. Kirstin is adept at creating and implementing systems that enable fast-paced scaling in high-growth tech environments. She is a natural collaborator and a servant leader who builds trust and accountability in her endeavors.

Mark Guymon is responsible for leading Rowan's business development and customer engagement efforts, including cultivating new customer partnerships. With two decades of involvement in the data center industry, Mark brings extensive expertise in infrastructure, operations, capacity strategy, acquisition, team development, and global initiatives. Mark's professional journey also includes working for leaders in the technology industry, such as AWS, Digital Realty, and IBM.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Emily Hemaidan is our Senior Director and Controller. Emily comes to Rowan with 15 years of real estate accounting, finance, and operational leadership. Emily has led her teams through significant growth, changes in systems, and implementations of processes and procedures to improve efficiency and maximize team productivity. She has managed and overseen the financial reporting and budgeting process for all phases of real estate and multi-department corporate entities, including consolidations, intercompany and shared services. Emily provides accurate and meaningful reports to all stakeholders and partners to effectively measure performance and support key decision making.

Aaron Henry is a Director of Economic Development responsible for community development and establishing/maintaining partnerships with various external project stakeholders. Aaron has over 10 years of experience in economic development relationships, credit and incentive negotiations, site selection and community development. Aaron holds a dual major in Accounting and Finance with a minor in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is a Certified Public Accountant. Prior to joining Rowan, Aaron was a Senior Manager at Ernst and Young part of the Global Location Investment, Credits and Incentives Services.

Kyle Hoover possesses 20 years of experience ensuring the quality, safety, and adherence to environmental regulations of intricate engineering projects. He is an innovative engineering professional who excels in strategic planning, operational risk management, and data analytics. Demonstrating a consistent history of leadership in multidisciplinary settings, Kyle inspires and guides others. He is skilled at bridging the gap between business and technical professionals.

Furthermore, Kyle displays a keen interest in emerging technologies and the evolving landscape of best practices. With his personable demeanor and exceptional communication abilities, he effectively fosters agreement and collaboration on crucial initiatives.

Karen Jackson has a bachelor’s in construction management as well as an associate in architecture.  She has provided clients with program management, project management, design QC, and scheduling services over the past 25 years.  She has extensive design-build federal, commercial construction management experience, and energy conservation construction project experience in the commercial and federal construction sectors. She has developed and implemented many projects over her career with a focus on electrical energy substations.  She supports projects as needed in quality control, project management, estimating, proposal writing, developing training programs specific to the individuals, performing employee reviews, developing company SOPs, and conducting project audits.  She has experience with Primavera P6 scheduling, estimates and negotiation of contracts with clients and subcontractors, review of job cost; negotiation of change orders; monthly schedule updates, preparation of Time Impact Analysis, holding work-in-progress meetings, monitoring safety compliance, contract adherence to plans and specifications.

Jason Jett is a Senior Manager with our Energy team. He has over 20 years experience in energy trading from asset optimization to leading a trading desk at a large investment bank. Jason has covered all regions of the United States and Canada. He holds a Bachelor's of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Jeff Kensinger is a highly skilled project manager with experience in overseeing projects with budgets spanning up to $145 million. Known for his ability to effectively manage multiple construction projects concurrently, Jeff has a diverse skill set that encompasses various project activities. Jeff has 18 years in the construction industry with 7+ of them being within the mission critical industry.  Prior to coming onboard with Rowan Jeff worked at Black & Veatch.  He is also pursuing his MBA at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Matt Lamont brings a quarter century of experience in the data center and mission critical sector to the Rowan team.  His aptitude as an architect and planner runs the gamut from individual rack deployments to hyperscale campuses of several hundred megawatts.  With the exception of Australia, he has been involved with data center projects on every continent.  He is looked upon, not only as a holistic thinker, but as a gifted communicator and unifier.  To this day, he maintains relationships with every facet of the data center market, from legacy wireline, wireless, enterprise and colo, to hyperscale.  Prior to joining the Rowan team, Matt was a mission critical practice leader at HKS.

Mark McKeon is a Senior Director of Safety responsible for formulating and executing the safety strategies and plans for Rowan's rapidly growing data center portfolio. Mark has 20 years in construction safety and a total of 26 years in construction related work including power generation, transmission/distribution, waste water, telecom, data centers, and most recent, electrical testing. Mark is a member of the American Society of Safety Professionals ("ASSP") Colorado Chapter and holds a Certified Safety Professional certification from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals ("BCSP").

Maggie Phillips is a Business Operations Manager responsible for driving companywide initiatives that support Rowan's ability to serve our customers and create an engaging employee experience. Prior to joining Rowan, Maggie spent 15 years at Accenture consulting for Health and Public Sector clients. Maggie holds a BA in Economics with an Emphasis in Public Policy from the University of Colorado. Outside of work, Maggie is passionate about advocating for individuals with Down syndrome and serves on the Board of Managers for GiGi's Playhouse Denver.

Rob Pinter is a Senior Associate and safety professional managing onsite safety. Rob brings in nearly a decade of high/medium voltage line work experience, getting his start in medium voltage distribution, moving on to high voltage transmission then transiting into safety. His experience with substations, vault banks, and underground utilities is paramount toward his role as a safety professional. Rob also brings in eight years of military experience, where he served four of those eight years overseas as a Military Police Non-Commissioned Officer. He performed tasks related to personal security details for high-ranking military members, US political figures and The President of the United States.

Conor Range is part of the Corporate Strategy and Finance team responsible for supporting commercial negotiations and structuring, driving growth through acquisition, supporting the C-suite and investors in the decision-making process, and securing project financing to support construction and operations of projects. Conor has five years of experience across real estate investments and tenant representation. He previously worked at BH Properties, a single-family investment office, helping to allocate capital across value-add, opportunistic, and private-debt investments. Prior to BH Properties, Conor worked as part of the Corporate Services team at Savills. He earned his degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Martin Romo is an economic development, real estate, and public policy professional with over a decade of experience in the public and private sector.  He is experienced in community development, government affairs, real estate development feasibility, and site selection for industrial-scale infrastructure projects within data center markets. Martin holds a master's degree in Economic Development from Cornell University. Prior to joining Rowan, Martin was a member of the Economic Development Team at Meta, supporting the development of several hyperscale data centers in the United States.

Joseph Sapin is an Associate on the Site Development team for Rowan. He is responsible for the development strategy and site evaluation of data center projects.  Joseph brings over a decade of experience as a project manager in real estate development and commercial construction in a variety of sectors, including industrial, healthcare, entertainment and residential among others. His understanding the of the complete project lifecycle, strategic relationships, and passion for green building and water resource management drives outcomes for the development of high quality, sustainable assets for clients and stakeholders alike.

Michelle Simmons leads asset management for our rapidly expanding hyperscale data center portfolio. Michelle has over 20 years in commercial real estate, specializing in optimizing large-scale portfolio performance through strategic planning. She previously served as an Asset Manager at Amazon for their Northern California Real Estate and Operations division. Michelle also previously managed U.S. bond portfolios in major markets and oversaw hyperscale tenants across office, data center, and industrial assets worth $284 million and upwards of 8.6 million square feet.

Nate Shriver serves as Director of Development and is responsible for the development strategy and site evaluation of data center projects from inception through the start of construction. Nate brings 10 years of experience in real estate finance, development, and construction management across multiple asset classes. Prior to joining Rowan, he was responsible for the development and construction of over $1B in multifamily and hospitality projects as Director of Development for The X Company. Nate received his undergraduate degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree in real estate development from DePaul University.

Ryan Sparks is a licensed Professional Engineer and leads electrical engineering at Rowan. Ryan's expertise lies in data center/mission critical design, construction, and commissioning for hyperscale data center projects. Ryan's experience also spans to concurrently maintainable enterprise data center design and operations. Ryan has worked on data center projects for clients such as AWS, Microsoft, and Wells Fargo. Prior to joining Rowan, Ryan designed, constructed, and commissioned data center projects at Black & Veatch. Ryan has a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Rockhurst University.

John Thompson is responsible for overseeing complex commercial negotiations and leasing activities for our customer-ready projects. He brings a varied background spanning many different verticals within the Real Estate and Construction industries, having most recently served as an Asset Manager overseeing four markets in Digital Realty's North American data center portfolio. Prior to joining Digital Realty, he served in progressively more essential roles in construction and development project management in the Northeast, and brings a unique perspective to lease negotiations, portfolio strategy, and financial modelling, specifically in the hyperscale and colocation data center segments. John has a master’s degree in real estate from Cornell University, and a B.S. with a focus on environmental and technological entrepreneurship from Babson College.

Jack Whitaker is a Project Manager on our Development and Origination teams, bringing over 10 years of diverse professional experience in both government and private sectors. As an Army Veteran, Jack served in various leadership roles within the 101st Airborne Division and was deployed on two operational missions, demonstrating exceptional leadership and strategic skills in high stress environments. Jack joined Rowan in June 2022, recently completing a 1.5-year rotation of the commercial team: Business Development, Corporate Strategy and Finance, Energy, Origination, and Development. Additionally, Jack possesses three years of specialized experience in the Renewables and Data Center Industries. Jack holds a BA from the University of Tampa and an MBA specializing in Sustainability from the University of Oregon.

Chris Wu is a Director of Site Origination & Development. Chris is responsible for identifying strategic partnerships with renewable energy developers as well as overseeing development activities for portfolio projects. Chris has close to 25 years of environmental experience, largely supporting renewable energy projects, and more recently, the data center industry. Prior to his time with Rowan, Chris was a renewable energy partner at ERM, where he oversaw the North American solar program and served as an Account Manager for numerous clients, including data center developers. Chris has a BA in environmental studies and sociology from Tufts University and a master’s in environmental management from Duke University.