With more than 16 years of experience serving clients involved in complex projects throughout Spain, Hill’s Víctor Krzyżaniak Martínez is now assuming the role of the company’s Data Center Sector Leader, Western Europe.

“Victor’s appointment reflects the importance of the current and expected future regional growth in data center investments,” notes Vice President & Managing Director Western Europe Alex Ramos. “It is born out of a need to provide more dynamic support to our clients across a wider geography and the technical specialization requirements. This is a key sector for us, and I am looking forward to working closely with him over the coming months.”

Victor also speaks of a key moment for data centers, not just in Europe but around the world. “[Data center] growth is exponential everywhere,” he says. “They are the key infrastructure of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” He cites the increasing importance of streaming, social media, gaming, artificial intelligence, online banking, the Internet of things, and more to governments and private entities around the world.

Victor continues: “With organizations throughout Europe placing massive amounts of data into the cloud, secure data storage and immediate access are increasingly important priorities.” Accordingly, he estimates Western European data center markets will need to grow by more than 5% annually—and in some cases more than 10%—over the next decade to ensure data resiliency and help pave the way towards European data independence. To achieve this growth, governments will need access to energy, especially clean energy, and appropriate regulation frameworks. If the EU, as well as national and private sector leaders are able to address these points appropriately, Victor envisions strong sector growth over the next decade.

In addition to energy access and regulation frameworks, data center leaders will have to execute individual projects efficiently and sustainably in accordance with global best practices. This is where Victor and the rest of Hill’s European data center team can contribute most directly. He says: “Our strong design and schedule management experience is especially significant for data center clients. Establishing the right goals amidst changing regulations and balancing complex project requirements makes data center pre-project planning particularly challenging. But the right support at this stage also leads to cost-effective and sustainable decisions in the development of our clients’ programs.”

Data center clients understand the importance of a strong start to project success. That’s why, according to Victor, more and more existing clients are approaching Hill for dedicated support during the pre-project planning phases of their projects. “Hill’s suite of preconstruction services, combined with the value the Hill team can add during project delivery phases, leads to more efficient and sustainable data center construction,” he says.

As Hill’s new sector leader, Victor hopes to replicate the success his team has had in Spain with such clients as Data4, Microsoft, and Interxion across all of Western Europe. In addition to expanding Hill’s scope to include pre-project planning consultancy, many of Hill’s international data center clients in Spain are hiring Hill to support projects in other countries.

“The seeds are there,” Victor concludes. “In Spain, we’ve had great success helping our clients deliver transformative developments. That has led to strong and lasting relationships with major players in Europe’s data center sector. We also have fantastic professionals who have the experience, the expertise, and the dive to perform on any data center project—no matter how complex. Combine all that with the boom we’ll continue to see in data center development, and I think the data center sector has the potential to become one of the most profitable sectors for Hill in Western Europe. Let’s revisit this conversation in two years’ time and see if I’m right.”

To learn more about the ways Hill International supports data center clients in Europe and around the world, reach out to Victor at [email protected].