END USER INSIGHT

Stephen Beard , Global Head of Data Centres , Knight Frank

View video interview :

What does your role entail and can you give an overview of what a typical day looks like for you ?

Stephen Beard , Global Head of Data Centres , Knight Frank , discusses how real estate and data centres marry up , data centre growth in the UK market compared to the global picture and why Manchester should be a top priority for data centre investment .

I oversee a team of 14 individuals based here at Baker Street , London . We ’ ve got a couple of people over in Singapore in the APAC market and they ’ re working in conjunction with our partners in the US . So , effectively I ’ m responsible for running a global team on a cross-sectional basis .

From a day-to-day perspective , we ’ re dealing with data centre customers that are always looking for new operational , technical whitespace . We work with data centre operators that may need more land in a variety of different markets , or institutional investors looking at potentially securing equity stakes with partly stabilised or fully stabilised platforms . So a wide variety of work streams where no two days are the same , which makes for an exciting place to be .

With extensive experience in real estate , what sparked your interest in data centres ?

When I finished my degree , I wanted to move to London . It seemed to make more sense to go there and I probably naively felt that becoming a West End retail agent or a central London City investment agent would be the right course of action , but it ’ s interesting how times change .

In a previous role , to be really candid , my main driver , which is still the case today , is making money and I had a sense that where I was at the time , I would have to wait for my director to either pass away or www . intelligentdatacentres . com

47