About Us

Huw Owen

Chief Executive Officer

Huw joined Ark in November 2012 as Chief Executive to lead a new Management Team following the recapitalisation of the company. He has held key roles at a number of organisations, including BT Global Services and HP Defence and Security. Other roles in his extensive career include Chief Executive of the Atlas Consortium, delivering the Ministry of Defence DII (Defence Information Infrastructure) programme.

Huw also worked for the Asia Foundation, formulating and driving national reform programmes in Cambodia, as well as advising the United Nations on their efforts in Central Asia. Before this, he served with the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, latterly as a Detective Inspector.

Roy Gibbens

Executive Director, Sales & Marketing

Roy has enjoyed a 25-year career in Technology, working across multiple sectors, with some of the world’s largest Hyperscalers and recognisable innovative brands.

With over 10-years-experience specialising in the data centre industry, Roy joined Ark in 2013, to lead the Sales Team which has since grown and positioned Ark as one of the largest and fastest growing data centres in the UK.

Roy is passionate about the role that the data centre industry has to play in helping our customers reduce their carbon footprint and is committed to further establishing Ark as the home of socially responsible data centres in the UK.

Lindsey Sherar

Director of People, Leadership & Change

Lindsey graduated in 2015 after completing her LLB Law with Business Degree at the University of Brighton and joined Ark shortly after, in June 2015. Since joining, Lindsey has completed her Advanced CIPD in Human Resource Management and used her experience during her sandwich degree course to assist in creating a culture focused on our people.

Lindsey is responsible for ensuring that we look after everyone intellectually, physically, spiritually and emotionally. She continues to focus on personal development and task performance by using training to develop all our skills and knowledge, in addition to ensuring the right people join Ark through effective recruitment and selection processes. Lindsey supported Ark in becoming a High Performance Organisation in 2017 and achieving Investors in People Platinum in 2017 and 2020.

James Owen

Client Experience Director

James joined Ark in 2013 and is responsible for end-to-end client experience covering account management, project delivery and service management. He has over 10 years’ IT services experience, specialising in financial services, defence and the public sector industries. Before joining Ark, James worked at Hewlett-Packard, developing through the programme management discipline before supporting UK senior leadership with strategic planning, transformation and business operations.

Ian Perryment

Finance Director

Ian Perryment joined Ark in December 2012, from HP Defence and Security. Prior to this, he was CFO of the Atlas Consortium, delivering the Ministry of Defence DII (Defence Information Infrastructure) programme, and Finance Manager with the NAAFI, a multinational providing services to the British armed forces.

Ian is a chartered accountant, having trained with PwC, including a two-and-a-half-year assignment in Australia with the Transaction Services team specialising in due diligence, initial public offerings and financial modelling.

Tony Singh

Commercial Director

Tony leads our in-house Legal and Compliance team whose remit, in addition to legal advice, covers insurance, risk management, governance and compliance activities including our quality management systems, environmental licensing and ISO certifications. Tony also assists with contract negotiations and supports Ark’s sales construction and operations function.

Tony joined Ark in September 2014 from Eversheds where he was an Associate in the Commercial practice group with a focus on railway, telecoms and IT contracts as well as pro bono activities.

Andy Garvin

Director of Design, Build and Operations

Andy joined the Company in 2009 and now heads up the Construction Team, responsible for the co-ordination and management of all data centre construction activities across the Ark estate. A civil engineer by training, Andy has over 15 years of experience within the construction industry and has successfully lead many multi-million pound data centre build projects with a total value well over £300 million.

Andy joined Ark from Black and Veatch where he was involved in both designing and constructing many large critical engineering projects across Energy, Water and Telecommunications sectors.

Rob Silvester

Real Estate Director

Rob joined Ark in 2018 to drive the growth of the company’s real estate strategy. He has over 25 years’ experience in the UK and European Real Estate capital markets industry as an advisor or principal and has executed over £2Bn of transactions across multiple geographies and asset classes. Rob is a chartered surveyor, has held senior positions at CBRE, King Sturge (now JLL) and advised the UK’s leading real estate institutions on Capital Markets transactions.

Simon Burrage

CEO of Crown Hosting

Simon was appointed Crown Hosting CEO in April 2021 following an 8 year career as Ark’s Commercial Director. Since 2015 he has also been a Crown Hosting non-executive director.

As Commercial Director at Ark, Simon was responsible for deal structuring and contract negotiations, insurance, new site acquisitions and supporting business development and customer sales activity. He was also responsible for internal compliance with a remit including risk management and internal audit, together with Ark’s quality management system, environmental licensing and ISO certifications.

Simon holds degrees in Engineering and Law and is qualified as a solicitor (England and Wales). He joined Ark from Eversheds, a law firm based in the city of London where he advised a range of public and private sector clients, including Ark’s investors.

Lord Evans of Weardale

Non-Executive Director

Lord Evans was Director-General of the Security Service (MI5) between 2007 and 2013, having previously served on the Management Board as Director of International Counter Terrorism. He is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of HSBC Holdings, as well as being a member of the Advisory Boards of Darktrace and of Facewatch.