Principal Real Estate Europe has appointed industry veteran Paul Lewis as director of European data centres.
In this newly created role, Lewis will be Principal Real Estate’s European data centre specialist responsible for data centre asset and transaction management. He will be closely involved with the broader Principal Real Estate investment team in the transaction and underwriting process for all acquisitions across Europe.
Commenting on the appointment, Andrew Thornton, CEO of Principal Real Estate Europe, said: 'This is a major appointment for our European business, demonstrating the scale of our ambition to unlock opportunities on behalf of our investors in the increasingly popular European data centre market.
'Over the course of his career, Paul has worked on more than 30 major data centre transactions and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our team.'
With more than 30 years of experience operating in the data centre and industrial sectors, Lewis joins Principal Real Estate from Segro where he was latterly director of group data centres with responsibility for the group’s developments across western and central Europe.
During his time at Segro, Lewis held numerous roles and presided over the growth of the group’s largest asset, the Slough Trading Estate, turning it into the pre-eminent data centre campus in Europe with 29 facilities operated by companies such as Equinix, CyrusOne, Virtus, and NTT.
Lewis commented: 'As an asset class, data centres have come of age, operating on the cusp of real estate and infrastructure to create the ultimate real asset investment. The sector is characterized by huge and growing occupier demand and restricted by supply of existing assets and good, quality locations with proximity to a combination of power and connectivity.
'Operating effectively in this market demands a deep understanding of many factors, including specific occupier requirements and the various local regulations governing these assets. This is an exciting time to be joining an ambitious business such as Principal, with such a strong history of investing in real estate.'
