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.

Manley Hopkinson

Director of People & Performance

Manley joined Ark in January 2014 to create a “purpose-and-values-led” organisation with a robust performance regime. He has 13 years of consultancy experience in designing and delivering large-scale global cultural change programmes across many market sectors, including retail, banking and healthcare.

Manley was schooled on leadership through a mix of practical and academic; as an Officer in the Royal Navy and the Royal Hong Kong Police, as a skipper in the BT Global Challenge yacht race and winning The Polar Race skiing to the Magnetic North Pole

Stephen Hall

Executive Director Sales & Marketing

Steve joined Ark in October 2012. An engineer by profession, he has had a highly successful career in both sales and service delivery. Prior to working with Ark, Steve held a number of senior positions at HP and EDS, including UK Public Sector Sales Director and Sales and Growth Lead, delivering IT services to the MoD.

Steve joined the technology industry having completed 19 years of distinguished service in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy as an Aeronautical Engineer Officer.

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.

Simon Burrage

Commercial Director

Simon joined Ark in February 2013, but had been working in the same position on secondment from Eversheds since November 2012. Simon is responsible for Ark’s commercial activities, making sure that the dealings of all elements of the organisation are aligned to meet Ark’s strategic commercial objectives. Simon joined from Eversheds, a law firm based in the City of London, where he was a Principal Associate in their real estate practice group.

Douglas Aikman

Chief Operating Officer

Doug joined Ark in 2014 and is responsible for end to-end operations from design and build through to live services and service delivery. He has over 16 years’ IT experience, specialising in multiple industries including financial, energy, defence and the public sector. Before joining Ark, Doug had spent many years at HP, managing infrastructure operations, technical refreshes, data centre consolidation and cloud deployments for a number of global clients, including Royal Dutch Shell.

Andy Garvin

Construction Director

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.

Steve Webb

Chief Information Officer

Steve joined Ark in 2008 and now heads up The Office of the CIO, which is responsible for evolving how Ark operates. He brought a wealth of experience to the role having held the position of COO at Affinion International, where he was responsible for operations in Europe, South Africa and Japan. Prior to this, Steve garnered over ten years’ experience in senior management positions with travel company RCI, where he was responsible for strategic planning activities.

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.

Jeffrey Thomas

Non-Executive Director

Jeffrey's background is in data capture and automatic identification and has been on the board of a number of such organisations, including the Endata and Peak Technologies. He is currently chairman and principal equity partner of Hartham Park PLC, a business services company.

Brian Fitzpatrick

Non-Executive Director

Brian Fitzpatrick has over 25 years of experience and an in-depth knowledge of international telecommunications, including senior positions at Global Crossing and Teleglobe. In 2005, Brian was Managing Director/President of BT Wholesale, helping reposition it as a leading provider of managed network services. He became CEO of ACN Europe, the world’s largest direct-selling communications company, in 2011. Two years later, he was appointed CEO for Vodafone Carrier Services.