Data Center People: Cohesive FT, JE Dunn, 451 Research, DataBank

Here’s an update on some of this week’s executive hiring announcements from the data center industry:

JE Dunn Adds Ron Vokoun - JE Dunn Construction Company, the 10th largest domestic general building contractor in the United States, is pleased to welcome Ron Vokoun to our Mission Critical team. Vokoun has more than 25 years in the industry, with experience as both an owner and contractor, providing mission critical leadership to multiple industry sectors. Vokoun is based in JE Dunn’s Phoenix office, and will help foster the continued growth of JE Dunn’s Mission Critical vertical market on a national level. Prior to joining JE Dunn, Vokoun spent the last 10 years providing industry leading thought leadership on mission critical projects. He is involved with the U.S. Green Building Council, 7x24 Exchange, Green Chamber of Greater Phoenix and serves as Vice President of the AFCOM Arizona chapter. Vokoun graduated with a Bachelor of Science in construction management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is also a regular contributor to the Industry Perspectives column at Data Center Knowledge.

CohesiveFT Hires Chris Swan as CTO - CohesiveFT, which provides enterprise application-to-cloud migration and application software defined networking (SDN), has hired Chris Swan as its new Chief Technology Officer. Swan, formerly CTO for Client Experience at UBS, is an active enterprise user and thought leader. He is a member of the Open Data Center Appliance, and frequently speaks at Cloud Camp London events. He will join the CohesiveFT London office, though his responsibilities will take him to events and customers globally. "I am very excited to be joining the talented team at CohesiveFT and working in the exciting cloud computing automation and SDN space," said Swan. "I have been following CohesiveFT since their beginning as both as a potential customer and industry peer." Before joining UBS Swan was CTO at a London-based technology investment banking boutique, which operated a cloud-only IT platform. He previously held various senior R&D, architecture and engineering positions at Credit Suisse, which included networks, security, data centre automation and introduction of new application platforms. Before moving to the world of financial services Chris was a Combat Systems Engineering Officer in the Royal Navy. He has an MBA from OUBS and a BEng in Electronics Engineering from the University of York.

Tony Bishop Joins 451 Research - The 451 Group, the corporate parent of 451 Research, Uptime Institute and Yankee Group, has acquired advisory and research firm Applied Velocity Labs, the developer of a proprietary digital infrastructure strategy framework adopted by multiple Fortune 500 companies and leading technology-industry providers. Bishop will join The 451 Group as Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Head of 451 Advisors, which provides advisory services to The 451 Group’s enterprise, IT vendor and service-provider clients. "We are delighted to welcome Tony Bishop and the Applied Velocity Labs team to join me and the 230+ professionals here at The 451 Group," said The 451 Group’s Chairman and CEO, Martin McCarthy. "The convergence of systems, facilities and IT under the umbrella of digital infrastructure is an important dynamic in our industry. Tony Bishop has an excellent track record in helping business and technology executives navigate digital infrastructure challenges."

Aaron Alwell Joins DataBank Management Team - DataBank Holdings, a data center and colocation service provider based in Dallas, this week announced the hiring of Aaron Alwell as the VP of Marketing. Alwell will oversee all aspects of marketing, lead generation, and branding for the company as well as spearhead their entry into new markets. Alwell joined DataBank from AnoGenex, where he has served DataBank in a consulting role for the past year.
“I am very excited to officially welcome Aaron to the team,” said Tim Moore, CEO of DataBank. “Aaron has already had a big impact on the company’s visibility and lead-generation, and we plan to leverage his industry experience to foster additional share in our current market as well as engaging new ones as we execute our growth-plan.” Previous to DataBank, Alwell served as the Director of Marketing for Denver-based ViaWest and Dallas-based Dataside.