Aquila Capital announced 20th September that Petter M. Tømmeraas, Senior Vice President for Data Centre Services of Basefarm AS, will join as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Aquila Capital's data centre business AQ Compute on October 1, 2021. He will be based in Oslo, Norway, and reporting to Rolf Zarnekow, Head of Investment Management Real Estate.
As CEO of Aquila Capital’s data centre business, Petter will help Aquila Capital continue to further professionalise the business, building on his vast experience in data centre operations, sales and development. He will be responsible for expanding the business currently being built up in the Nordics and driving forward the move into other European countries. Petter will work closely with Carl von Hessen, Head of Data Centre Investments at Aquila Capital, and the AQ Compute team to facilitate Aquila Capital’s ambition to be one of the market leaders for sustainable data centres in Europe.
Roman Rosslenbroich, CEO and co-founder of Aquila Capital says: “Aquila Capital contributes to the global energy transition by investing in clean energy and sustainable infrastructure. Using part of our clean energy capacity portfolio of more than 12GW for green data centres that are energy-efficient and reduce CO2 emissions will help many companies to mitigate their impact on the environment. Petter’s proven strategic mindset and remarkable expertise in the data centre industry will enable us to further strengthen this essential part of the infrastructure backbone in Europe. I’m looking forward to Petter helping us achieve our ambitious goals.”
Petter has more than 20 years of experience in the data centre industry, developing projects and programs that deliver growth and impact. He has worked in different management positions in companies with highest focus on data centre related services to companies in the Nordics, Europe and the US. In his most recent position, he was leading the data centre business for Basefarm AS, a European Managed Service Provider and large player in the Norwegian Colocation market.
Prior to joining Basefarm AS, Petter worked as the Chief Sales Officer for the Norwegian data centre company Green Mountain AS. He started working in the data centre services, telecommunication services and the managed services sector back in 1998 and is one of the founding members as well as current Chairman of the Board of the Norwegian Data Centre Industry.
“I look forward to being part of the Aquila Capital family and joining the AQ Compute team, maintaining the business’ growth trajectory and together building a major sustainable data centre provider,” said Petter M. Tømmeraas. “Aquila Capital has a strong track record in initiating, developing and managing sustainable businesses along the entire value chain in Europe. Its expansion drive in the data centre space is matched by an unrivalled infrastructure and the financial resources to make it happen.”
Since 2012, Aquila Capital has been developing sustainable, energy-efficient real estate and logistics projects in Europe with a total transaction volume of more than EUR 2 billion. AQ Compute builds on additional synergies within Aquila Capital, profiting from many years of experience in structuring private power purchase agreements (PPAs), the professional focus on energy efficiency and extensive expertise in sustainable construction.
