F E A T U R E

Could you share a bit of your own journey into the data centre sector?

I don ' t think anyone you speak to in the data centre world has a conventional journey into it. Everyone seems to have their own unique path. For me personally, I began my career in recruitment and that ' s where I spent over a decade. It was pharmaceutical recruitment, so a very different field! In all honesty, I simply fell out of love with recruitment.

Then, an opportunity arose with a managed service provider called CHS

As the UK grapples with energy volatility and the imperative to decarbonise, one company is stepping forward with a bold new identity, poised to revolutionise how large-scale power consumers, particularly data centres, access green energy. We sat down with Amy Young, Director of Data Centres at the newly rebranded Xela Energy, to find out more.

Networks. My role was to establish their sales and marketing arm from scratch. I was with them for five years and during that time, we grew from no sales and marketing activity to a fully-fledged team. It was the steepest learning curve I ' d ever experienced in technology.

That ' s quite a shift from recruitment. Was it an easy transition for you?

It was, and still is, a very steep learning curve on a daily basis. This industry simply doesn ' t stand still and that ' s precisely what

I love about it. For me, there were points where it felt unnerving and a little bit scary, because there ' s an expectation that people expect you to be technical. You have to be able to deliver on that, and they ' re relying on you to effectively be the expert.

Are you encountering many more female engineers and tech personnel than you initially expected?

There are definitely more and more of us, which is an amazing thing to see. Every time I attend an event, it ' s great to observe more women entering the

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