The not-for profit group Data Centre Alliance – an international representative body for the industry – has elected ex UK Parliamentary Private Secretary for the Departments of Trade & Industry, Environment and Home Office Steven Norris as its new president.

He is just one high-profile appointment made by the alliance today. Others include new DCA chairman Adriaan Oosthoek – Colt’s European executive and VP of data center services – vice chairman Dennis Kehoe – AIMES Grid Services and previously a Saxby professor and Royal Academy of Engineering Research professor at the University of Liverpool.

Executive director for international property and real-estate advisors CBRE Andrew Jay has been named as SVP for governments and policy. TelecityGroup MD Rob Coupland as SVP for training and skills and head of EMEA data center initiatives for ABB Ciaran Flanagan is vice president.

Norris said he was impressed with how much the industry group has grown in recent years and commended those who provided their time to help push its initiatives forward.

“In just two years the Data Centre Alliance has grown from being the brainchild of Simon Campbell-Whyte and Steve Hone to the highly respected industry representative body it now is,” Norris said.

“As such it is fitting that some of the most senior people in the industry should decide to give freely of their time and expertise to grow the DCA’s scope and influence wider and indeed globally.”

The Pan-European Data Centre Academy (PEDCA) project is among one of the DCA’s achievements for 2013. It received funding from the European Union to address problems around skills, cybercrime and investment that affect the industry.

Other key appointments made include Andrew Green to the role of SVP for new markets. Green is a director at PTS Consulting and Matt Pumfry to the role of SVP for DCA Technical Council. Pumfry is the CEO of Smart Carbon Control and a director at Get-Smarter Energy.