Leadership

Michael Cohen
President

Michael Cohen is focused on building cost effective yet robust state-of-the-art data centers in a way that offers Advanced Data Centers' clients the scale and cost of operations previously only available to companies with large budgets. Michael oversees data center site selection, development, financing and financial planning, in addition to corporate finance and legal responsibilities.

With more than a decade of experience in high technology venture capital focused on telecommunications and data center investments, Michael has had the unique opportunity to see some of the most important Internet technologies move from whiteboard to market. Michael is a Founder and Principal of Aperture Ventures, Inc. and a Venture Partner for Industry Ventures. He was previously employed by Global Crossing Ltd. (formally Frontier Communications and data center pioneer Frontier GlobalCenter), where he was the Managing Principal for Global Crossing Ventures, Inc. While managing the highly successful venture fund, Michael served on numerous boards and was responsible for leading financing rounds for a number of successful technology companies, including Granite Systems, Sonus Networks, and SpringTide Networks. Additionally, Michael has been associated with CIBC Oppenheimer and KPMG.

Michael received a Master of Science in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Political Economy with honors from Connecticut College. He is also an active member of the Guardsmen, a service organization dedicated to improving the lives of under-privileged youth.

Bob Seese, Ph.D.
Chief Data Center Architect

With more than 20 years of global data center design, project engineering, and project management experience, Bob Seese has worked extensively in the mission-critical facility, facility management, and construction industries.

Formerly the Chief Data Center Architect with EDS and the Director of Data Center Development with Equinix, he has managed numerous data center projects and has helped design many of the world's cutting edge facilities. While with Netscape and AOL, Bob helped design and build more than 300,000 square feet of data center space throughout the U.S. More recently, as a data center consultant, he has provided design assistance and training as well as end-to-end project support for engineers and end-users worldwide.

He has authored and co-authored numerous technical articles and presented to groups and organizations globally on issues related to energy efficiency in mission-critical environments, and on specific data center design concepts. He has completed in excess of 800 data center audits worldwide and has amassed a vast library of the "best and worst practices" in the design and operation of those facilities.

As a recognized leader in energy conservation, he participated in the San Jose Green Building Task Force and was later appointed by the mayor to a blue ribbon task force charged with evangelizing and implementing the city's first green building initiative. He actively participated in the Rocky Mountain Institute's Integrated Design Charrette, which resulted in the publication of the often quoted "Design Recommendations for High-Performance Data Centers". And, as a founding member of the Critical Facility Roundtable, Bob has continued to promote energy efficient design particularly in mission-critical environments.

Bob holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Educational Management, as well as Bachelor's degrees in Motion Pictures and Television and Liberal Arts.

Lance Smith
Chief Revenue Officer

Lance has recently joined the management team at ADC and is responsible for “how we sell” by aligning the company specific revenue generation process and the business strategy with targeted customers. In other words, he is responsible for the Go-to-Market Strategies (GTMS) producing profitable revenues.

He brings more than 15 years of experience in the technology sector. Lance recently was the founder and CEO of Horizon Data Center Solutions; a venture financed B2B company offering flexible collocation and managed services with an innovative cloud computing/IaaS platform. In less than three years under his leadership, Horizon built an impressive roster of government and business sector clients valued at over $75MM with an average contract length of 52 months. Prior to his founding of Horizon, Lance amassed over a decade of enterprise data center/ITO experience. He has managed over 200,000 square feet of datacenter space and held leadership positions at Atos Origin and ACS.

At Atos Origin, Lance was the Managing Director of North American Data Center Services with direct headcount of 300+ and P&L responsibility for a $100MM business unit. For ACS Government Systems, Lance was a Director of Business Operations for five years. In this role he was responsible for an $81MM annual revenue budget, coordination of account management functions, generation of new business growth with annual targets, negotiation of new client contracts, service delivery coordination, SLA/contract compliance and strategic business process reengineering. During his time at ACS, Lance participated in over 50 ITO transactions which involved over 1,200 full time positions.

Lance has been featured over the years in industry periodicals and is a frequent speaker at conferences. Lance earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from Austin College, and he completed a Master’s degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in organizational management from the University of North Texas.