Digital Realty Appoints Gregory S. Wright as Chief Investment Officer and Mark Smith as Managing Director, Asia Pacific

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Nov 26, 2018, 16:02 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today the appointment of Gregory S. Wright as Chief Investment Officer. In addition, Digital Realty announced the appointment of Mark Smith as Managing Director, Asia Pacific. Mr. Wright will report to Chief Executive Officer A. William Stein and will be responsible for spearheading Digital Realty's capital allocation activities. Mr. Smith will report to Chief Financial Officer Andrew P. Power and will be responsible for overseeing Digital Realty's operations in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Smith will begin his new role in December 2018 and Mr. Wright will join Digital Realty in January 2019.

"Greg's extensive strategic financial advisory experience across real estate, infrastructure and other related sectors makes him a strong addition to our team," said Mr. Stein. "In his capacity as an external advisor, his strategic and financial expertise have been integral to the execution of transactions that have been truly transformational for Digital Realty. He served as lead M&A advisor on our $1.9 billion acquisition of Telx and our $7.8 billion merger with DuPont Fabros as well as our recent $1.8 billion Ascenty acquisition. We are confident that his unique combination of financial expertise and intimate familiarity with our business and team will prove invaluable as we continue to build upon this positive momentum in the years ahead."

Mr. Wright commented, "I am honored to be named Digital Realty's Chief Investment Officer, and eager to begin working with this world-class company on a deeper level. Digital Realty is known as an industry leader, and I look forward to working with my new colleagues to support the strategic expansion of the Digital Realty platform around the globe."

Mr. Wright joins Digital Realty with significant investment banking experience, most recently as Co-Head of Americas Real Estate and Managing Director of the Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging Group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. During his tenure at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Mr. Wright provided strategic and financial advice to clients across a broad spectrum of real estate, infrastructure and related sectors, including Digital Realty.

Mr. Wright's notable engagements include advising Equity Office Properties Trust on its sale to funds managed by The Blackstone Group, The JBG Companies on its merger with Vornado Realty Trust's Washington, D.C. business and DCT Industrial Trust on its sale to Prologis, Inc. In addition, he advised Douglas Emmett, Paramount Group, Inc. and Americold Realty Trust on their respective groundbreaking initial public offerings. Prior to his time at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Mr. Wright served as a Managing Director in the Real Estate & Lodging Group at Citigroup where he was responsible for originating and executing strategic advisory assignments and general client coverage. Prior to Citigroup, Mr. Wright worked at Trammell Crow Company in Washington, D.C. where he was a member of the finance team responsible for acquisitions, dispositions, and joint ventures as well as construction and permanent financings across multiple product types including industrial, office and retail. Mr. Wright received a Bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

"We are excited to welcome Mark Smith to the Digital Realty team," said Mr. Power. "Mark has demonstrated significant business leadership in the Asia Pacific region, including spearheading prominent companies' cloud services growth. Given his deep institutional expertise, we expect Mark will be instrumental in driving our key strategic initiatives in this critical region."

Mr. Smith said, "Digital Realty has established itself as the pre-eminent provider of high-quality data center and colocation solutions across the globe. I look forward to joining Digital Realty and helping this outstanding global company capitalize on the many opportunities in the rapidly evolving and fast-growing APAC market."

Mr. Smith joins Digital Realty with extensive industry experience and well over two decades of experience in Asia, most recently as Managing Director, Asia at Zettagrid where he actively explored new growth opportunities throughout the region. Previously, Mr. Smith served as Managing Director, Cloud Services, Asia Pacific and Japan at VMware where he was responsible for managing the Cloud Services Business, including a network of over 600 service providers, and also led the launch of VMware's public cloud offering in Asia Pacific. Prior to VMware, Mr. Smith led Asia Pacific for CenturyLink and Savvis Communications.

For Additional Information
Andrew P. Power
Chief Financial Officer
Digital Realty
(415) 738-6500

Investor Relations
John J. Stewart / Maria S. Lukens
Digital Realty
(415) 738-6500
[email protected]

Media Inquiries
John Christiansen / Scott Lindlaw / Lindsay Andrews
Sard Verbinnen & Co.
(415) 618-8750

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty supports the data center, colocation and interconnection strategies of more than 2,300 firms across its secure, network-rich portfolio of data centers located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Digital Realty's clients include domestic and international companies of all sizes, ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and consumer products. https://www.digitalrealty.com/

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to our plans and organization. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the following: reduced demand for data centers or decreases in information technology spending; decreased rental rates, increased operating costs or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of data center space; the suitability of our data centers and data center infrastructure, delays or disruptions in connectivity or availability of power, or failures or breaches of our physical and information security infrastructure or services; our dependence upon significant customers, bankruptcy or insolvency of a major customer or a significant number of smaller customers, or defaults on or non-renewal of leases by customers; breaches of our obligations or restrictions under our contracts with our customers; our inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and development space, and delays or unexpected costs in development of properties; the impact of current global and local economic, credit and market conditions; our inability to retain data center space that we lease or sublease from third parties; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; our failure to realize the intended benefits from, or disruptions to our plans and operations or unknown or contingent liabilities related to, our recent acquisitions; our failure to successfully integrate and operate acquired or developed properties or businesses; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of our lack of control of such investments; risks associated with using debt to fund our business activities, including re-financing and interest rate risks, our failure to repay debt when due, adverse changes in our credit ratings or our breach of covenants or other terms contained in our loan facilities and agreements; our failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing, and our dependence on external sources of capital; financial market fluctuations and changes in foreign currency exchange rates; adverse economic or real estate developments in our industry or the industry sectors that we sell to, including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges and goodwill and other intangible asset impairment charges; our inability to manage our growth effectively; losses in excess of our insurance coverage; environmental liabilities and risks related to natural disasters; our inability to comply with rules and regulations applicable to our company; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT for federal income tax purposes; our operating partnership's failure to qualify as a partnership for federal income tax purposes; restrictions on our ability to engage in certain business activities; and changes in local, state, federal and international laws and regulations, including related to taxation, real estate and zoning laws, and increases in real property tax rates. For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2018, June 30, 2018 and September 30, 2018. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Digital Realty