Founder of Europe’s largest data centre operator throws his weight behind South Africa’s first vendor neutral data centre.
London, UK, 2 June 2009 –
Teraco Data Environments today announces that Guy Willner, co-founder and CEO of IXEurope (now Equinix Europe), has joined its board.
Guy Willner has also invested in the company alongside leading international and local shareholders including black owned South African private equity group,
Treacle Private Equity and prominent British industrialist, Sir Peter Michael.
“I’m excited to be involved with Teraco. South Africa’s telecoms is now at a similar stage of liberalisation as Europe was when we started IXEurope, opening up a new world of opportunity for businesses to connect cost effectively and reliably,” says Willner. “Carriers and service providers will increasingly see the value of a neutral point to interconnect their networks and do business. The time is now right to create a real home for the Internet in South Africa and I believe the Teraco management have addressed the
opportunity in the right way. The team is very competent, focused on being the highest quality player in the market and is already well on track to building a very successful business. I look forward to working closely with the team on this exciting project"
Guy Willner, 45, has over fifteen years of senior leadership experience in high-tech companies. He founded the UK-based colocation provider
IXEurope in 1998, forging high-level strategic relationships with key accounts as the company's turnover grew over 600% in the first three years. His leadership team grew IXEurope into a London Stock Exchange listed business operating 14 large-scale data centres in four countries.
Equinix Inc (Nasdaq EQIX), the largest global operator of network-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services, acquired the company in 2007 for £270.1 million (over R3.5 billion at current exchange rate). He now serves in a non-executive role as President of Equinix Europe.
Andrew Tuckey, Chairman of Teraco, said: "Guy has already made a major contribution to Teraco and we welcome him to our board. His experience in the sector and in building and growing successful companies will be of enormous value to Teraco as our business accelerates, and as we become the yardstick in South Africa for vendor neutral data environments."
