Company

Eric Schwartz

President, Equinix Europe

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 was an undergraduate at Stanford University where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Economics.

Russell Poole

General Manager, United Kingdom

Russell Poole joined Equinix as UK General Manager in April 2000, bringing with him nine years of experience in the UK telecommunications and Internet industries. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Poole was a director of MessageNet Ltd, an Internet security and messaging security provider. Responsible for sales and operations, he also led the development of e:)scan—Europe’s first e-mail virus and content control service. In October 1999, MessageNet was acquired by Articon-Integralis AG. Between 1993 and 1998, Mr. Poole was the National Sales Manager for General Telecom, the business telecoms division of General Cable Plc. During this time, he grew the business from four sales people and £3m annual revenue to 35 sales people in three locations and £25m annual revenue.

Mr. Poole attended Nottingham University, where he studied production engineering. Following 12 months traveling, he commenced his managerial career at Coca-Cola and Schweppes where he enjoyed a successful career as a National Account Manager.

Frits van der Graaff

General Manager, Switzerland

Frits van der Graaff's role at Equinix started when the company acquired its first Zurich data center. Originally acting as Swiss Sales Manager, Mr. van der Graaff is now responsible for the three highly specified data centers in Zurich and Geneva. He also supervises the operation of the TIX™ the largest Internet exchange in Switzerland, based in Zurich, which, combined with the CiXP (co-managed with CERN in Geneva), carries over 90% of peered Internet traffic in Switzerland.

Prior to working with Equinix, Mr. van der Graaff held the position of Project Manager with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in which time his extensive portfolio included the build out of a 29,000 sqm KLM freight building and design of a seven-story office building. During his time at KLM, he designed and managed many operation-oriented projects and supported the development of the new terminal of Schiphol Airport. Other positions Mr. van der Graaff has held include—Head of Development & Planning for Desenco (where he was responsible for project and facilities management) and Senior Manager for Rietmeyer.

Jörg Rosengart

General Manager, Germany

Jörg Rosengart joined Equinix in 2005 when the company acquired Gesellschaft für Informationstechnologie und Consulting mbH (GIC), Germany's leading business continuity provider. Prior to this, Jörg was General Manager and shareholder of GIC for over five years where he was instrumental in the company’s growth and subsequent leading market leading position. Jörg trained in tele-communication engineering during the 1970s and continued his career at Texas Instruments, Deutsche Bank and IMS Data, where he progressed to Datacentre Director and then General Manager.

Michel Brignano

General Manager, France

Michel Brignano joined Equinix in January 2007, bringing expertise from a wide range of commercial technology roles. His previous position was at Telecity, where he was the Country Manager for over five years. There he was responsible for strategy and market solutions for the French territory. Prior to this position, he had a number of commercial roles. He worked for DELL Computers from 1993 to 1997 as Chief of Sales and for UUNET as a Sales Director from 1997 to 2001, initially working for the France business unit and then operating across South of Europe.

Michiel Eielts

General Manager, The Netherlands

Michiel Eielts joined Equinix in 2009 and is responsible for IBX data centers in Amsterdam, Enschede and Zwolle. He brings over 20 years of experience in the Dutch IT and Telecommunications industry. Prior to Equinix, he worked at Nedstat, a European web performance and monitoring firm,  where he held the position of Vice President of business development, and was responsible for the development and management of business alliances throughout Europe. Earlier in his career, he held several commercial and managerial roles in the regional management of KPN. He left as a General Manager to join the board of Telfort , a Dutch fixed and mobile operator.  Amongst his responsibilities were the development and market introduction of new data (managed IP) and mobile services (Blackberry), the growth of corporate markets and the development of the mobile wholesale market.  He also worked as Managing Director at BSC, a large call center outsourcing firm based in the Netherlands (subsidiary of Essent).

Samuel Lee

President, Equinix Asia-Pacific

As President of Equinix Asia-Pacific, Mr. Samuel Lee holds overall responsibility for all Equinix operations in the Asia-Pacific region, including International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) centers in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney. Mr. Lee brings a wealth of experience in telecom and Internet services as well as expertise in startup operations.

Most recently, Mr. Lee was Vice President of Equinix Asia-Pacific. Under his tenure, the Hong Kong IBX became an EBITDA (defined as income or loss from operations before depreciation, amortization, accretion, stock-based compensation expense and restructuring charges) and cash flow-positive operation. Mr. Lee also successfully led the Equinix Hong Kong team in building a strong position for Equinix in providing business continuity and disaster recovery services for the financial services industry in Hong Kong.

Prior to joining Equinix in 2000, Mr. Lee served as Managing Director of Pacific Gateway Exchange (PGE), a provider of wholesale and retail long distance, Internet, and bandwidth services. In this position, he spearheaded the company’s expansion into the Hong Kong market, focusing on carrier services, such as voice wholesale, bilateral relationships, capacity, and back haul sales, and Internet business services, including transit, colocation, and content delivery services.

Prior to PGE, Mr. Lee 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.

Doug Oates

Vice President of Sales, Equinix Asia-Pacific

Doug Oates has over 30 years experience in the Telecommunications industry in Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa. Mr. Oates joined Equinix in May 2000 and currently has overall responsibility for Sales in the Asia Pacific region. As VP of Sales, Mr. Oates oversees the sales strategy, execution and growth of the region.

Prior to this role he was responsible for the Equinix Australian operation. Previously Carrier Services Director at Pacific Gateway Exchange, he helped establish the company’s wholesale operations in Australia. This included negotiating multiple interconnect facilities with carriers and building the company’s business base. Prior to this he was General Manager of Sales for Global One. Over a six year period he managed the company’s sales growth from start-up.

Mr. Oates holds a Diploma in Telecommunications.

Kei Furuta

Managing Director, Equinix Japan

Kei Furuta joined Equinix with a wealth of international consulting and management experience in Internet and Telecommunications industry, particularly with a specialization in marketing and developing global services, investment in high-tech ventures, and advisory for many industry service providers.  As the managing director for Equinix Japan, Mr. Furuta is responsible for the overall performance of Equinix’s operation in Japan.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Furuta held various executive positions in industry leading data center operators, an internet consulting firm and a mobile service provider.  He also served as regional head at AboveNet and Sprint where he managed the operation in Japan and Korea.  Mr. Furuta was also a founder of Energy Initiative Japan (EIJapan), an engineering and consulting firm for energy-saving and environmental technologies.

Mr. Furuta started the first 15 years of his career at Marubeni Corporation, one of the leading Japanese trading houses where he held various management positions in global technology and telecom business development.

Mr. Furuta holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Waseda University, Tokyo.

Darren Mann

Managing Director, Equinix Australia

Darren Mann joined Equinix in January 2001 and has played an integral part in building Equinix’s customer base in Sydney. In 2006, Mr. Mann held the position of Sales Director where he was responsible for the performance of the local sales team. As Managing Director, Mr. Mann has overall responsibility for Equinix’s business presence in the Australian market.

Prior to Equinix, Mr. Mann spent six years at IHS Australia as a member of the sales team, where he was responsible for selling online technical and regulatory database services to the University, Construction & Mining, and Defense industry sectors. Previously, he spent six years in the retail sector, three of which were in management positions. Mr. Mann has over 13 years of experience in the IT industry and 18 years of sales experience.

Clement Goh

Managing Director, Equinix Singapore

As the Managing Director for Singapore, Clement Goh is responsible for the overall performance of the Singapore IBX centre. This includes increasing local and regional market share, profitability, and operational efficiency.

Mr. Goh has held a number of key positions in multi-national global technology companies and has been instrumental in ensuring the rapid expansion of the companies that he has served. Previously, he worked as Datastream’s Senior Sales & Marketing Director in Asia Pacific. Prior to Datastream, Mr. Goh was McDATA’s Field Program Director in Asia Pacific, where he drove business development in the region while strengthening relationships with technology giants EMC and Dell. Mr. Goh has also held leading positions at EMC Singapore, Oracle Systems Singapore, and Agilent Technologies.

Mr. Goh holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical & Electronics from the National University of Singapore.

Jonathan Leung

Managing Director, Equinix Hong Kong

Jonathan Leung has over 18 years of management experience in North Asia’s technology industry. Most recently, he was the Director of Business Strategy at ASTRI—a Hong Kong-based R&D firm where he was responsible for the negotiation and execution of technology licensing deals. 


Prior to that, Mr. Leung was the Vice President of Sales at CPCNet, where he managed five sales offices in Hong Kong and China. In 1998, Mr. Leung co-founded NetTasking Inc., a network infrastructure management service provider in Asia-Pacific. There he drove sales and marketing functions as well as built channel partner relationships. A Singapore-listed company acquired the company in 2002. Before that, he was General Manager with full P&L accountability at Asia Online, a leading first-generation regional ISP. Mr. Leung has also held various sales management positions at IBM and Datacraft.

Mr. Leung holds a M.Sc. in Investment Management from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, an M.B.A. from Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a First Class Honours Degree in Electronics Engineering from University of Hong Kong.