Dennis Cronin Named COO at Steel Orca Project

Industry veteran Dennis Cronin has been named Chief Operating Officer of Steel Orca, an innovative Pennsylvania company that is developing a large data center that plans to tap the Delaware River for its cooling system and power its servers using electricity generated from landfills and solar panels.

Cronin has more than 37 years of experience designing, constructing and operating mission critical facilities, and is one of the founders and Director Emeritus of the 7x24 Exchange.

"Eco-Industrial" Project

Steel Orca is planning a large, innovative data center at the Keystone Industrial Port Complex (KIPC), an "eco-industrial" business park that has risen atop the former home of the US Steel-Fairless Works factory in Fairless Hills, Pa. The project will be housed in a 700,000 square foot facility that will be built from the ground up, and include 300,000 square feet of data center space. With its appplication of green technologies and re-use of an industrial site, Cronin said Steel Orca is offering a unique opportunity to build out the new economy in the footprint of the old.

"I truly believe in the Steel ORCA vision," said Cronin. "There are several types of data centers in the industry today. Steel ORCA’s Digital Utility Center takes the best of breed technology platforms and weaves them into one of the most efficient compute facilities in today’s market. My job is to leverage many years of experience and apply them to the Steel ORCA roadmap and operational milestones."

Cronin has held roles at large financial companies such as UBS, Smith Barney and Shearson/American Express that heavily rely on mission critical systems and is a forensic specialist providing analysis of facility operational processes. He was most recently at Gilbane Building Company, where he led projects on the mission-critical facilities team.

"Dennis is very well respected in this industry," said David Crocker, CEO of Steel ORCA. "His involvement in over 40 TIER III and IV data centers brings added credibility to Steel ORCA. As a company we are doing something different, and it takes a team that has both vision and experience to make this project a reality. We look forward to working with Dennis to lead our team with innovative, cost-effective, and environmentally considerate digital utility designs."