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.

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.

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.

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 matters with a particular focus on contract negotiations, new site acquisitions, and supporting customer sales. Simon leads our in-house legal & compliance team whose remit, in addition to legal advice, includes insurance, risk management, and governance and compliance activities including our quality management system, environmental licensing and ISO certifications. Simon joined from Eversheds, a law firm based in the City of London, where he was a Principal Associate in the real estate practice group.

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.

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.

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.