EdgeConneX’s Top Sales Exec Heiden to Replace QTS COO Bennewitz

QTS Realty Trust, which is going through major restructuring, has hired Clint Heiden, who until recently led sales at EdgeConneX, the company known for its edge market-focused data center services model, helping web content companies reduce the cost of delivering content to secondary markets.

But EdgeConneX has also done several hyper-scale cloud deals – it’s built out massive data centers for Microsoft in the US and Europe – and hyper-scale is the focus of QTS’s current restructuring effort.

QTS announced in February that it would discontinue many of its existing cloud and managed services offerings and place more focus on hyper-scale clients and hybrid colocation for enterprises. Investors were not impressed, and its shares tumbled following the announcement, while an activist investor started calling on the QTS board to sell the company and replace its top management.

The Overland, Kansas-based data center REIT’s shares haven’t recovered since that time, although they have risen somewhat overall.

Heiden, who served as chief commercial officer at EdgeConneX since 2013, “helped sell and deliver more than 80 megawatts of critical capacity to customers,” QTS said in a statement.

Named QTS’s chief revenue officer, he will replace Dan Bennewitz, COO, sales and marketing, who plans to retire this year.

Related:QTS Dumping Cloud, Managed Services – Wall Street Not Impressed

The company also announced that Tag Greason, formerly executive VP of hyperscale sales, has been named Chief Hyperscale Officer.

Another key exec left EdgeConneX last year. Don MacNeil, who used to serve as its CTO, left in September to join network connectivity provider FiberLight as COO. In December, he was promoted to lead FiberLight as CEO.