GI Partners' managing director John Sheputis has announced his resignation from the company.
Sheputis has been with the company for more than four years, and according to his LinkedIn profile, left the MD role in November 2023, carrying on as a senior advisor until the end of the year before finally departing. He is now listed as a self-employed advisor.
In a LinkedIn post shared on February 6, Sheputis said: "After 4+ years, I recently resigned from GI Partners. I am grateful for the opportunity and proud of what we achieved.
"Despite market turbulence, Covid, and other challenges, we successfully completed the acquisition of 30 properties, accounting for more than 5.4 million square feet. During my tenure, the Tech + Science real estate team more than doubled AUM. It’s been a privilege and an honor to lead such a talented team. I learned a tremendous amount.
"I am proud and grateful to have contributed to the storied legacy of GI. I will greatly miss my colleagues and partners, but I am confident that the portfolio and the team are well positioned for future success."
Sheputis' career has been long and winding in the sector. He was notably a director of Enron between 1996 and 1999 - his LinkedIn profile humorously notes "Enron was fine when I left in 99." Enron famously underwent corporate bankruptcy in 2002 after the use of accounting loopholes including mark-to-market accounting, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting to hide billions in debts. In total, Enron's shareholders lost $74 billion in the four years before the company's bankruptcy.
From his stint at Enron, Sheputis went on to companies including Totality Corporation (now part of Verizon), BeVocal, and Solidcore Systems, before founding Fortune Data Centers in 2006 where he reigned as CEO until 2014 when the company merged with Dallas Informat to create Informart Data Centers, where he was president of the company.
In 2018, Infomart was split between Equinix, which purchased the Dallas Infomart site, and IPI Data Centers (now Stack Infrastructure), which acquired the Silicon Valley, Portland, and Ashburn data centers. Following this, Shebutis lists his role as 'manager' of Data Centers Unlimited Management Partners.
He started working at GI Partners in August 2019.
GI Partners is a private equity firm with offices across the US and in London, UK. The firm counts among its portfolio companies DRFortress and LightEdge. LightEdge, acquired by GI Partners in September 2021, purchased a Stream DC data center in Chaska, Minnesota, in January 2024, bringing its total data center portfolio to 12 facilities.
GI Partners purchased a majority stake in two Chicago data centers from Digital Realty in June 2023 through its Essential Tech + Science Fund, just a few months after acquiring a Digital Realty-occupied data center owned by Starwood Capital located in Ashburn, Virginia. GI Partners founded Digital Realty in 2004 before listing the company and divesting its stake.
