Equinix Names New Chief Product Officer, 2 Other C-Level Execs

Equinix says its three new promotions reflect its shift to “customer-centric operations.”

Equinix’s Karl Strohmeyer

Karl Strohmeyer, Sara Baack and Eric Schwartz are all moving up in the company. Their appointments come not long after two long-tenured and high-ranking Equinix leaders departed the business.

“As we continue to enhance the value of our global platform and serve an increasingly strategic role in the digital transformation of our customers, these changes to our organization will enable us to advance our leadership as the trusted center of a cloud-first world,” Equinix President and CEO Charles Meyers said.

Strohmeyer, who currently is Equinix’s president of the Americas, will start his tenure as chief customer and revenue officer in the second quarter. He’ll lead a new organization that handles all of the company’s customer-facing business. That includes the Equinix partner community.

Chief marketing officer Sara Baack will move to chief product officer.

Her organization develops the company’s portfolio of services and data-center platform. She replaces Brian Lillie, who worked at Equinix for 11 years. Lillie wrote on LinkedIn that he will embark on a year of “exploration.”

Equinix’s Sarah Baack

“If you run into me over the coming year, you’ll find me spending more time with my family; visiting new places where I can see new things and meet new people… advising startups and private equity companies; continuing to serve on the Lumentum and Talend boards; and volunteering more in my community,” Lillie said.

President of EMEA Eric Schwartz will serve as chief strategy and development officer. His tenure leading EMEA saw the region increase in revenue from $178 million to $1.6 billion over 10 years. He’ll now oversee various strategies for growth and hyperscale initiatives.

Equinix’s Eric Schwartz

Meyer praised the three appointees for their experience.

“Karl, Sara and Eric have a combined 24 years in executive roles at Equinix, and I am supremely confident in their understanding of our customers as they continue to embrace and execute their transformation to digital business, and the unique opportunity that our organization has to serve them,” he said.

Meyer became CEO last fall, succeeding Steve Smith, who left under relatively unexplained circumstances. Peter Van Camp served as interim CEO for half of 2018.

“There was a period of some anxiety as you might expect with a transition like that, but I think we were very fortunate in terms of being able to have [Peter Van Camp] step into the role. A very stabilizing force. He asked the team to really get focused on the plan we already had in place,” he told CNBC shortly after his appointment.

Equinix made our list of 20 top colocation providers last year. It hailed the proliferation of private interconnection bandwidth in its recent Global Interconnection Index. It also expanded its channel reach by partnering with TBI in the fall.