Walt Coulston, founder and CEO of Australian data center firm GreenSquareDC, is exiting his role as part of an executive leadership transition at the company.

He will be replaced as CEO by Charles Penny, who has held the chief development officer role since the company’s launch.

Coulston will transition into a board director role and remain a significant shareholder.

Coulston said: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built at GreenSquareDC and grateful to the board, Partners Group, and the team for their support since inception. The platform is extremely well-positioned for its next phase, and I look forward to continuing to support the business as founder, board director, and as a significant shareholder.”

Penny added: “GreenSquareDC has entered an exciting new chapter. I’m proud to lead the team as we bring our projects into operation and continue to build a world-class Australian data center platform.”

GreenSquareDC was founded in 2021, describing itself as a “sustainability-oriented data center provider.”

The company launched in October 2022 and has since developed a gigawatt data center development pipeline.

GreenSquareDC chairman Graeme Barclay said: “Walt’s vision and ability to secure strategic sites and major partnerships laid the foundations for the platform we have today. The board is pleased that Walt will continue his involvement as a director and significant shareholder as the company moves into its delivery phase.”

He added: “We are delighted to appoint an internal candidate of Charles’ calibre to lead the next phase of the company’s growth. Charles has a strong track record in delivering and leading large-scale data center developments.”

“The board is confident this planned transition provides continuity for our people, partners, and customers as GreenSquareDC focuses on delivery and operational readiness.”

Last year, the company was acquired by the Swiss private equity firm Partners Group. Partners Group said it would invest up to AU$1.2 billion (US$803.5 million) to establish the company as a “next-generation data center platform.”