Verne, the leading provider of sustainably powered HPC data centers across the Nordics, and Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, today announced that A. William “Bill” Stein, former CEO of Digital Realty Trust, has been appointed as Chair of Verne’s board of directors as it continues to build out its sustainably-powered data center platform.
Bill Stein's appointment reflects his extensive background in corporate growth, strategic investment, and operational excellence, making him an invaluable asset to Verne's long-term growth strategy and vision for the data center industry. The appointment comes ten months after Ardian acquired Verne.
With more than three decades of executive leadership experience spanning diverse industries and roles, Stein currently advises private companies and investment funds specialising in digital infrastructure and energy. Stein currently serves as Chief Investment Officer and Executive Managing Director at Primary Digital Infrastructure, an independent investment platform for the data center industry. As CEO of Digital Realty Trust from 2014 to 2022, he led the company’s exponential growth, helping to secure its position in the S&P 500 Index and achieving a total enterprise value over $70 billion. A co-founder of Digital Realty in 2004, he also served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer.
Prior to Digital Realty, Stein played pivotal roles at GI Partners, the private equity firm that launched the company, as well as at PNC Financial Services Group, TriNet Corporate Realty Trust (now part of iStar Financial), Westinghouse Electric, and Duquesne Light Company.
"I'm honoured to join Verne as board chair and support its mission to develop data centers that are primed for the future and lead in both sustainability and innovation," said Bill Stein. "With Ardian's backing and Verne's vision for anticipating and meeting the demands of tomorrow’s technologies, the company is poised for tremendous growth in a rapidly expanding market. I look forward to contributing to Verne’s continued success as it scales its Nordic platform and sets the standard for the next generation of digital infrastructure."
“We are thrilled to welcome Bill as chair of Verne’s board. His expertise in scaling digital infrastructure and navigating complex growth strategies will be invaluable as we accelerate our Nordic expansion,” said Dominic Ward, CEO of Verne. “Bill’s leadership comes at a pivotal moment for Verne, as we scale our capacity to meet the surging demand for data centers equipped to support high-intensity compute. We are committed to delivering growth that not only meets our customers’ needs but does so sustainably, leveraging the Nordics’ abundant renewable energy to set a new benchmark for environmentally responsible data centers.”
“Ardian has tremendous ambitions for Verne to drive sustainable growth across the Nordic countries. We are extremely excited to appoint Bill as Chairman of the Board as Verne rapidly scales to meet accelerating demand for AI compute,” said Gonzague Boutry, Head of Digital Infrastructure Europe and Managing Director Infrastructure at Ardian.
