16 November 2021
Harris
Kao Data, the specialist developer and operator of data centres for enterprise, cloud, HPC and AI, has appointed Matthew Harris as its chief financial officer (CFO).
Following his position as managing director at Goldacre Noé Group, Kao Data’s original founders and investment firm, Harris joins the company’s c-suite, having overseen the financial evolution of the business from inception.
During his time with Goldacre, Harris played a crucial role in securing investment into Kao Data from Legal & General Capital in 2019, and overseeing the investment of up to £130m from New Zealand-based investors Infratil Limited last month. Further, his strategic appointment comes at a transformative point in Kao Data’s development as it moves from a single-site campus to a 55MW multi-site operator, having recently acquired two new data centres with a long-term anchor lease from a large financial services business in the UK.
As CFO, Harris will work directly alongside CEO Lee Myall, CTO Gérard Thibault, COO Paul Finch and Vice President, Spencer Lamb, to help spearhead the next phase of the company’s growth, engaging with new and existing customers within the financial services, life sciences, enterprise, and cloud sectors.
“Having been firmly engaged with the company’s vision and its growth strategy from inception, I’m delighted to have joined Kao Data formally, as its CFO,” saidHarris. “Kao Data is truly on the cutting-edge of tech, working with some of the industry’s foremost thought leaders and engineers to push the boundaries of design and innovation. Our facilities have been engineered to support the UK government’s National AI Strategy and have created a blueprint for the future of high performance data centres.”
