Executive Management

Stephen M. Smith

CEO & President

Stephen M. Smith joined Equinix in 2007 from Hewlett-Packard Co., where he served as Senior Vice President of HP Services. There he was responsible for management of the organizations Consulting and Integration, Managed Services, and Technology Deployment and Support business groups.

Prior to joining HP, Mr. Smith served as Vice President of Global Professional and Managed Services at Lucent Technologies. He has also held various management and sales positions during his 16 years with Electronic Data Systems Corporation, including Chief Sales Officer, President of EDS Asia-Pacific, and President of EDS Western Region. At EDS, his roles spanned sales, business development, operations, acquisition-driven integration, and the management of international growth. Mr. Smith also had a successful eight-year career in the U.S. Army where, among other roles, he was aide-de-camp to the office of the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific. Mr. Smith graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and holds a B.S. in Engineering.

Keith D. Taylor

Chief Financial Officer

Keith D. Taylor joined Equinix in 1999 and has served in a variety of roles, such as Equinix's Director of Finance & Administration, Vice President, Finance & Chief Accounting Officer, and now as CFO. Before joining Equinix, Mr. Taylor served as Vice President of Finance and Controller for International Wireless Communications, Inc., an operator, owner, and developer of wireless communication networks throughout Asia and Latin America. Prior to joining International Wireless Communications, Inc., Mr. Taylor was employed by Becton Dickinson & Company, a medical and diagnostic device manufacturer, as a Senior Sector Analyst for the diagnostic businesses in Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

Mr. Taylor holds a B.B.A. from Bishops University in Quebec, Canada, and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Mark Adams

Chief Development Officer

Mark Adams is a seasoned strategy and business development executive with 20 years of experience in high technology.  As Chief Development Officer, Mr. Adams is responsible for developing Equinix’s data center and services strategy.  This includes developing strategic partnerships, leading Equinix’s investment and acquisition program and overseeing real estate development.  Mr. Adams is responsible for recent transactions in the US, Brazil and Shanghai. 

Prior to Equinix, Mr. Adams was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy for Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (EFI), where he led a series of acquisitions and equity investments that launched EFI into digital inkjet printing. Mr. Adams was also VP Business Development at Adaptec where he led a major restructuring that included two acquisitions, five divestitures and several equity investments resulting in a 5X increase in Adaptec’s market capitalization. 

In addition, Mr. Adams has founded and been CEO of four companies in wireless networking, digital music, IPTV, and a venture capital fund for direct investment in Indonesia.  He has invested in and advised over 20 start-ups and completed over 35 transactions. 

Prior to entering technology, Mr. Adams was with McKinsey & Company and GE Capital in the US, Europe and Asia.  He also worked at the World Bank.

 Mr. Adams has an M.B.A. with Distinction from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University.  He has travelled extensively, lived in five countries and completed transactions four continents.  He currently resides in Silicon Valley.

Sara Baack

Chief Marketing Officer

Sara Baack joined Equinix in 2012 as Chief Marketing Officer, and is responsible for the company’s overall global brand, product and service portfolio, industry analysis, communications and vertical market development. Ms. Baack brings to Equinix more than 20 years of strategic corporate experience, joining the company from Level 3 Communications, Inc., where she served in a variety of senior positions, most recently as Senior Vice President of Voice Services. In this role, Ms. Baack was responsible for strategy, product management, pricing and commercial support, interconnection/regulatory policy, vendor management, network planning and routing for the $1b business unit.  In addition to her career at Level 3, Ms. Baack also worked at PaineWebber Incorporated as Vice President of Principal Transactions where she invested proprietary private equity capital in the communications sector.

Ms. Baack holds a B.A. from Rice University and an M.B.A.  from Harvard University Graduate School of Business.

Peter Ferris

Chief Sales Officer

Peter Ferris has held several senior-level positions with Equinix since July 1999 and was appointed Chief Sales Officer in 2010. In this global position, Mr. Ferris is responsible for executing the company’s go-to-market strategy. He also oversees sales operations worldwide. Prior to his current role, from October 2007 until October 2010, Mr. Ferris served as President, Equinix U.S. where he was responsible for strategy and growth of the company’s operations throughout the region. From July 1999 until October 2007, he served as the Vice President of Sales for Equinix.

Mr. Ferris has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to Equinix, he held senior management positions at Frontier Global Center, Genuity and MFS Datanet.

Mr. Ferris holds a degree in Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Howard Horowitz

Sr. Vice President, Global Real Estate

Howard B. Horowitz joined Equinix in 2005 with more than 20 years experience in commercial real estate acquisition, leasing, and development. Prior to Equinix, Mr. Horowitz was a Senior Vice President and Principal of Trammell Crow Company, where he led the company’s development and corporate advisory services group, specializing in mission critical facilities. Prior to Trammell Crow Company, Mr. Horowitz was President and Principal Broker of Telecom Realty Group, Inc., a Northern Virginia-based real estate consulting and brokerage company that represented major telecommunications and high-tech companies throughout the U.S. Mr. Horowitz is nationally recognized in the field of data center site acquisition and development.

Sushil (Sam) Kapoor

Chief Global Operations Officer

Sam Kapoor joined Equinix in 2001 from WorldCom, where he held the position of Vice President of Hosting Operations and was responsible for the build-out and day-to-day operations of six hosting centers. Prior to the company's acquisition by WorldCom, Mr. Kapoor served as Vice President of Global Network Operations for CompuServe Network Services and was responsible for the engineering, implementation and operations for CompuServe’s worldwide network. Before joining CompuServe, Mr. Kapoor held the position of Senior Director of Telecommunications for over 10 years at Lexis-Nexis in Miamisburg, Ohio.

Mr. Kapoor holds an M.B.A. (Operations Research) from Miami University of Ohio and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

Samuel Lee

President, Equinix Asia-Pacific

Samuel Lee joined Equinix in 2000 and now serves as President of Equinix Asia-Pacific, overseeing the management, strategy and growth of the company’s Asia Pacific operations. Previously, he served as the Managing Director of Equinix Hong Kong, where he successfully led the Equinix Hong Kong team in building a strong position for Equinix in the financial services industry in Hong Kong.

Mr. Lee brings a wealth of experience in telecom and Internet services as well as expertise in startup operations. Prior to joining Equinix, Mr. Lee served as Managing Director of Pacific Gateway Exchange (PGE), a provider of wholesale and retail long distance, Internet, and bandwidth services. He founded Telekom Consulting Ltd., a consulting firm offering strategic assistance to network providers in the deregulated telecommunications market in Hong Kong and Asia. He also held management positions at Teleglobe International, Intel, and Sprint.

Mr. Lee holds a B.A. from City University of Hong Kong.

Brian Lillie

Chief Information Officer

Brian Lillie joined Equinix in September 2008 and has been primarily focused on building business value through strategic technology and product initiatives. Examples include the design and build of the Equinix Customer Portal, Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange Portal, and the soon to be launched Equinix Marketplace portal. In addition to product initiatives, Mr. Lillie has driven several internal initiatives to improve internal efficiencies and global scale, including sales force automation, enterprise resource planning, business intelligence and acquisition integration.

Before joining Equinix in 2008, Mr. Lillie held several senior-level executive roles at VeriSign, including Vice President of Information Systems. Prior to VeriSign, Mr. Lillie was Senior Director of Enterprise Applications at Silicon Graphics (SGI), where he successfully implemented Oracle ERP globally, including throughout EMEA. Prior to these roles, Lillie held several leadership roles in the U.S. Air Force, where he worked in space research and development, satellite operations, and military computers and communications.

Mr. Lillie holds an M.S. in Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, an M.S. in Telecommunications Management from Golden Gate University, and a B.S. in Mathematics from Montana State University.

Charles J. Meyers

President, Equinix Americas

Charles Meyers joined Equinix in 2010 from Verisign where he was Group President of Messaging and Mobile Media, holding P&L responsibility for the company’s entire mobile portfolio. Mr. Meyers was also a Product Group Executive at Versign with P&L responsibility for the more than $500 million Security and Communications portfolio.

Prior to Verisign, Mr. Meyers held various executive positions at Level 3 Communications including Group VP of Global Marketing, President of IP and Data Services and SVP, Softswitch Services. During his tenure, Mr. Meyers helped Level 3 emerge as a premier global provider of Internet and VoIP services.

Mr. Meyers also previously served as a Principal with Kinetic Ventures L.L.C, where he focused on business opportunities across telecommunications infrastructure, broadband services, wireless and enterprise software. As Vice President and General Manager for Internet Security Systems, he was part of the company's successful IPO and championed the evolution of enterprise solutions through a managed services model.

Mr. Meyers held executive positions in operations, finance, and business development during his career with Bellsouth Telecommunications and Bellsouth.net, culminating with his appointment as President and Chief Operating Officer of that unit.

At Booz-Allen & Hamilton, he led the creation of world-class performance initiatives for technology and engineering clients.

Mr. Meyers earned dual masters degrees from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and McCormick Graduate School of Engineering. He also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Brandi Galvin Morandi

General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Brandi Galvin Morandi joined Equinix in January 2003 and has served as Equinix's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since that time. Before joining Equinix, Ms. Morandi practiced in the corporate securities group at the law firm of Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP (Gunderson Dettmer) in Menlo Park, California. At Gunderson Dettmer, Ms. Morandi represented public and private companies in a variety of debt and equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions as well as providing general corporate public company representation. Prior to her legal career, Ms. Morandi held various positions in the field of public relations.

Ms. Morandi holds a B.A. in International Relations and Journalism from the University of Southern California and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Lane Patterson

Chief Technology Officer

After serving in many roles in telecom and Internet companies, Lane Patterson joined Equinix in 2000 and is currently our Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Equinix, Mr. Patterson was Director of IP Network Management Systems for Global Crossing, Inc. where he supported a global IP backbone and first generation content distribution centers. At Metropolitan Fiber Systems, he lead operations of mid-Atlantic Frame Relay, ATM, and related data networking services, as well as the MAE-East Internet exchange point during the first wave of commercial ISP growth. Mr. Patterson has a deep background in the technologies related to telecommunications, Internet routing, and data center computing infrastructure.

Mr. Patterson received a B.A. in Physics from Cornell University and an M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Garry Ronco

Sr. Vice President, Global Human Resources

Garry Ronco joined Equinix in 2011. With nearly three decades of experience in business and human resources, he has a great deal of experience with hyper growth, turnaround, internal start up and small to large organizations, mainly in the technology industry. Garry has previously held executive positions at Blue Shield of California, JDS Uniphase, Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies and Sun Microsystems. He has led key organization development efforts including culture transformation, employee engagement, significant M&A activity, restructuring, leadership capability development, project execution, capability building, and performance management. Originally from Australia, Garry worked for Sun Microsystems, Prime Computers as well as the Queensland Department of Education while there. He holds a Masters in Human Resources and Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco and a Bachelors of Education Studies from the University of Queensland.

Eric Schwartz

President, EMEA

Eric Schwartz joined Equinix in 2006 and has played various senior-level management roles with the company. He spearheaded Equinix’s expansion to Europe, including the 2007 acquisition of IXEurope, and the ongoing integration of Equinix’s European operations into its global business. As President of Equinix Europe, Mr. Schwartz oversees the management, strategy, and growth for Equinix in Europe.

Mr. Schwartz came to Equinix from BellSouth where he was Vice President of IP Communications and led the development and implementation of advanced technologies including VoIP. Prior to joining BellSouth, he was Executive Vice President of Harold A. Dawson Company, an Atlanta-based real estate development company. Mr. Schwartz also is a former member of McKinsey & Co., where he consulted with telecommunications and financial services companies in the United States. and Asia on strategic issues.

Mr. Schwartz earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

Brian Thomas

Chief of Staff, Office of the CEO

Brian Thomas joined Equinix in 2005 and during his tenure he has played leadership roles in management reporting, financial planning, business strategy and executive communications, at both the corporate and regional levels. In his current role, Mr. Thomas works closely with the CEO and Executive Team on key strategic, financial and operational areas of management.

Prior to Equinix, Mr. Thomas spent nine years as an investment banker with Citigroup and its constituent entities: Salomon Smith Barney, Wertheim and Schroders in London, Singapore, New York and San Francisco. As an investment banker, he advised startups, multinationals and private equity firms on a broad range of M&A and capital markets transactions in the Consumer, Health Care and Technology sectors.

Mr. Thomas completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Graduate School of Business, received an M.Phil. in Economics & Politics of Development from the University of Cambridge and graduated with a B.A. in Economics & Politics from Willamette University. He was raised in Mumbai where he attended Cathedral & John Connon School.