techUK, the industry body that represents the British technology sector, has added two experts to the UK Council of Data Centre Operators.

Rob Coupland, UK MD of Telecity Group, has been elected as the Vice-Chairman of the council while Nicola Hayes, founder of Andrasta Consulting and former MD of DatacenterDynamics Intelligence, will join as a member to provide advice on communications and industry positioning.

Know-how
The Data Centres Council was established in 2009 to serve as the voice of the British data center industry, with an emphasis on all matters relating to energy. One of its greatest achievements was negotiating the Climate Change Agreement – a scheme that enables data center owners to get exemption from carbon taxes on electricity they use, as long as they promise to improve the efficiency of their facilities.

The 20-member council has also helped limit the impact of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, while constantly demonstrating the value of the sector to the UK economy.

Coupland, who will take over the responsibilities of vice-president, is a founding member of the council. He has more than 20 years' experience in the telecommunications and technology sector, including 12 years at Cable & Wireless.

Coupland will guide the organization alongside the council’s chairman Andrew Jay, head of EMEA at global property agency CBRE.

“Rob was a driving force in the negotiations for our Climate Change Agreement for data centers, and I am very much looking forward to working with him,” commented Emma Fryer, associate director of Climate Change Programmes at techUK.

The second addition to the council, NicolaHayes, has previously advised colocation providers, government agencies, financial institutions and hardware vendors. She has been involved with the data center industry since 1998, and helped set up the DCD Intelligence research practice at DatacentreDynamics. She will look after the council’s communications strategy, making sure that the news about its projects reaches a wider audience.

“We have been fortunate enough to achieve some major policy outcomes over the last year and Nicola will be instrumental in helping us to understand and, most importantly, articulate their impact on the sector,” added Fryer.