Siemens appoints data centre expert for ANZ

Siemens has announced that Kirk Wetherell will be leading its growing data centre vertical business in Australia and New Zealand.

Wetherell brings 19 years of experience across technology, energy and data centre infrastructure industries in the USA, Asia and Australia. He has strong expertise in data centre critical infrastructure, including medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) power systems, advanced thermal technologies, and modular prefabricated infrastructure.

Wetherell will oversee the delivery of Siemens’ leading advanced modular, scalable and AI-driven solutions across a comprehensive suite of offerings including power management, energy optimisation, microgrids, building automation, fire detection and more.

“This is the most exciting time I’ve seen in the data centre space,” Wetherell said. “Artificial intelligence is driving rack densities beyond 100 kW, prompting a complete rethink of how we design, power, cool and construct the next generation of facilities.”

Wetherell said that the data centre market in Australia and New Zealand is projected to more than double by the end of the decade. “Hyperscale demand is reshaping power, cooling and sovereign infrastructure across Sydney and Melbourne, as well as emerging hubs in Perth, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin and Auckland,” he said.

“Essentially, data centres are ecosystems of technologies, both hardware and software, that rely on key inputs such as energy and water. With Siemens being one of the world’s leading technology companies operating across smart infrastructure, energy and advanced industry, I can already see incredible opportunities to support the integrated needs of data centres.”

With a customer footprint across all major locations in Australia and New Zealand, Siemens said its value proposition is built around a combination of technologies to drive sustainability, innovation, energy efficiency, speed, scalability and comprehensive end-to-end solutions.

Peter Halliday, CEO of Siemens Australia and New Zealand welcomed Wetherell to the company. “Data is the new currency and backbone of our digital economy, making data centres mission-critical infrastructure,” he said. “Data centres are AI factories, supporting the transmission of vast amounts of data, and AI is vital for both the current and future needs of our economy, especially in energy transition and in the transformation of our manufacturing industry.

“Our customers are also becoming increasingly digital in their operations — from paperless manufacturing to digitalised asset management, energy grid simulation, AI-enabled predictive maintenance, energy microgrids integrated with blockchain and even driverless vehicles. At the heart of this is an explosion of data that needs to be managed in the most productive and sustainable ways,” Halliday continued.

“Australia has an economic opportunity to help decarbonise the world beyond the 1% of emissions we are trying to address as a nation. The key to unlocking this opportunity is industrial innovation that relies on data centres. It’s great to have Kirk on the team to look across our vast range of technologies that can be applied to support the needs of data centres.”

In his previous roles, Wetherell drove growth in the delivery of prefabricated modular infrastructure across data centre, telecom, mining, enterprise and government sectors.

Image caption: Kirk Wetherell.