Cassava Technologies has appointed Tesh Durvasula as the new CEO of Africa Data Centers (ADC) effective Monday, February 7, 2022.
Tesh Durvasula will be responsible for driving growth, innovation and the strategy of Cassava Technologies, as well as ensure data centers meet Africa’s accelerating demand for data and digital infrastructure.
Durvasula is a seasoned real estate and technology industry executive with a 25-year track record of successful leadership and value creation in the digital infrastructure sector. He will lead the ADC team as the organisation rapidly expands its hyperscale data center footprint across Africa with a plan to add an additional ten data centers in Africa’s top ten economic hubs.
Strive Masiyiwa, CEO and founder of Cassava Technologies, “At Cassava Technologies, our goal is to empower people and businesses with technology, based on our vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind. Through our digital infrastructure and services, we are empowering our clients to fully participate in Africa’s fast-growing digital economy. Expanding the footprint and manageability of our data centers is key to our strategy.”
Hardy Pemhiwa, president and CEO of Cassava Technologies, “We are delighted to welcome Tesh to the Cassava Technologies family and look forward to leveraging his extensive industry experience as he leads our data center business in its next phase of rapid expansion. to meet the increased demand for data center capacity in Africa. Following the completion of our $300,000,000 financing with the US IDFC and the recent $90,000,000 equity investment by the IFC, it was imperative that we expand our management team.”
Prior to joining ADC, Tesh served in a variety of executive roles at CyrusOne, culminating in his appointment as CEO of the company. And, prior to that, he served as President of European Operations for CyrusOne, overseeing CyrusOne’s expansion into England, Ireland, France and Germany, helping to build CONE into one of the largest publicly traded REITs in the USA.
“The potential to grow digital infrastructure is greater in Africa than anywhere else and this will provide a number of opportunities for economic transformation. I am very pleased to be joining Africa Data Centers and Cassava Technologies, especially now that Africa has become one of the fastest growing data usage regions in the world. I feel we are well poised to make an invaluable contribution to Africa’s rapidly developing digital ecosystem,” Durvasula concluded.
