We've appointed Obrie Tolken as Managing Director, EMEA, to lead the next phase of growth in one of our fastest-growing regions as demand for AI-ready infrastructure accelerates across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Building on strong momentum
EMEA is one of the most exciting data center markets in the world right now. AI is driving a new wave of investment across the region, and operators need partners who can take a facility from design to day-one operations and run it for decades, across borders and at pace.
That’s what we’ve built here. Through previous acquisitions, we’ve brought together deep expertise in design, construction, commissioning and critical facility operations, backed by more than 40 lifecycle services worldwide.
Our EMEA teams already deliver for some of the world’s largest hyperscale, colocation and enterprise operators. Obrie’s appointment is about taking that further, faster.
A leader who has scaled across borders
Obrie brings a decade of experience leading operations across a dozen countries for a global infrastructure services business. Each country had its own market, regulations and ways of working. With a people-first approach, he grew them into some of the best-performing businesses in the group. He has already done at scale what we’re setting out to do next: grow a multi-country business while keeping the quality and consistency our customers expect.
Obrie is based in Amsterdam, at the heart of Europe’s FLAP-D data center corridor (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin), and reports to Mike Jones, President, Global Operations.
“EMEA has real momentum, and Obrie is exactly the leader to build on it,” said Mike Jones, President, Global Operations. “Our customers are building at a pace this industry has never seen. They want one partner who can support them from first drawing to full operation, in any country, to the same standard. Obrie has spent his career building that kind of business, and with him leading the region, we’ll go further, faster.”
“What drew me to Salute is what’s already here: exceptional people, real technical depth, and the ability to support customers across the entire data center lifecycle,” said Obrie Tolken. “That’s rare in this market. My job is to help our teams scale it, so every customer, in every country, gets the very best of what we do.”
What’s next
Obrie will lead our senior EMEA leadership team across capital projects and professional services, facility management operations, Iconicx commissioning, and AI data center strategy and development. Together, they’ll focus on scaling our capabilities across the region and making it even easier for customers to work with us, wherever they’re building.
Welcome to the team, Obrie.