Clint Heiden, former Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at EdgeConnex, has joined QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS) as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Mr. Heiden previously served at data center company EdgeConnex as Chief Commercial Officer for five years and helped sell and deliver “more than 80 megawatts” of critical capacity to customers.
In this new role at QTS, Clint Heiden will lead QTS’ Hybrid Colocation Sales and Marketing organization. Mr. Heiden will report directly to QTS’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chad Williams.
“Clint is a recognized leader in the data center industry who brings valuable experience and capability to our hybrid colocation vertical,” said Chad Williams, Chairman, and CEO of QTS. “I am pleased to have Clint join the QTS family and help drive the next phase of our growth strategy.”
Dan Bennewitz, QTS’ current Chief Operating Officer – Sales and Marketing, plans to retire in 2018 and will work with Mr. Heiden to ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, in conjunction with the hiring of Mr. Heiden, Tag Greason, formerly Executive Vice President of Hyperscale Sales – QTS, has assumed the role of Chief Hyperscale Officer effective today and will continue to report directly to QTS’ CEO.
Sales Leadership Experience
Clint Heiden has more than 26 years of sales leadership experience in the data center, telecommunications, and Internet technology industries. Prior to his role at EdgeConnex, Mr. Heiden served as President of Sidera Networks and previously held senior leadership roles at PAETEC, Cable & Wireless America as well as UUNET. In these roles, Heiden led organizations responsible for “over one billion dollars of annual enterprise revenue” while at the same time generating “significant organic revenue growth.”
“I am pleased to be joining the QTS team at a time when growth in the data center industry continues to accelerate around hybrid-enabled colocation,” said Clint Heiden. “I have followed QTS from the outside for many years and see the company’s recent strategic shift around enabling cloud and managed services through a software-defined platform as revolutionizing data center service delivery. As the leader of QTS’ hybrid colocation sales organization, I look forward to empowering customers’ diverse hybrid data center strategies with a differentiated go-to-market model.”
Through its software-defined data center technology platform, is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, connectivity, and managed services to more than 1,100 leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities.
“Clint’s technical background in data centers, network, IP, peering and interconnection combined with a track record in successful sales management provides a strong fit with QTS’ strategic initiatives in hybrid colocation,” said Jon Greaves, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at QTS. “Our Service Delivery Platform provides the foundation for delivering integrated hybrid solutions and is well-aligned with customer demand for a cloud-like experience and diverse access to IT partners. Together with Clint’s sales leadership, we expect to fully capitalize on the opportunity to enable the next generation of cloud and managed services to our customers through our technology platform.”
