DigitalBridge Appoints Data Center Pioneer Christian Belady as a Senior Advisor

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2024-- DigitalBridge Group, Inc. (NYSE: DBRG) (“DigitalBridge”), a leading global alternative asset manager dedicated to investing in digital infrastructure, today announced that Christian Belady has been appointed as a Senior Advisor. In his role, Mr. Belady will provide strategic counsel to DigitalBridge in support of the continuing development of the firm’s global data center portfolio, which is positioned to meet unprecedented demand driven by investment in cloud and AI.

Mr. Belady is a distinguished industry veteran with over four decades of experience in data center and infrastructure management and development on a global scale. He has received numerous industry accolades and holds over 150 U.S. and international patents related to both data center and server design.

“We are thrilled to welcome Christian to DigitalBridge and look forward to benefiting from his unparalleled expertise in data center design, development and management,” said Jon Mauck, Senior Managing Director of DigitalBridge, who leads the company’s data center investment strategy. “Christian is a distinguished technologist whose innovations have changed the industry’s metrics and led to substantial energy efficiency gains globally. As part of DigitalBridge, Christian will continue to advance the sector and, specifically, drive energy efficiency and design improvements to better meet the demands for AI workloads.”

Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Mr. Belady served as Vice President of Data Center Research and Development for Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure Organization. In that role, from which he recently retired, Mr. Belady led a team developing new technologies to transform the sector and address the challenges of scaling the cloud and AI. In previous roles at Microsoft, Mr. Belady led global server and data center development, including research, engineering, construction, and operations for Microsoft’s data center portfolio. He also developed and led the energy team during this period.

“I am pleased to join DigitalBridge,” added Christian Belady. “I have long been impressed by the firm’s approach to global digital infrastructure investing. I look forward to working closely with the management team and learning from our combined experience and knowledge.”

Mr. Belady has been a key founder or contributor to a number of industry organizations and standards, including ASHRAE (The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), The Green Grid, and iMasons Climate Accord (ICA), where he helped to develop new industry metrics and guidelines to foster sustainability and efficiency. This year, his contributions have been recognized with two prestigious industry awards: election to the National Academy of Engineering and the Data Center Icon Award from the North Virginia Technology Council.

About DigitalBridge

DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG) is a leading global alternative asset manager dedicated to investing in digital infrastructure. With a heritage of over 25 years investing in and operating businesses across the digital ecosystem including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells and edge infrastructure, the DigitalBridge team manages ­­$75 billion of digital infrastructure assets on behalf of its limited partners and shareholders. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, DigitalBridge has key offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Luxembourg and Singapore. For more information, visit: www.digitalbridge.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” or “potential” or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases which are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and which do not relate solely to historical matters. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, and may cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Factors that might cause such a difference include changes to the level of demand for digital infrastructure, our ability to drive energy efficiency and design improvements, and other risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in DigitalBridge’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2023, June 30, 2023 and September 30, 2023, and its other reports filed from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements reflect DigitalBridge’s good faith beliefs, assumptions and expectations, but they are not guarantees of future performance. DigitalBridge cautions investors not to unduly rely on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. DigitalBridge is under no duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this press release, nor to conform prior statements to actual results or revised expectations, and DigitalBridge does not intend to do so.

Investors:
Severin White
Managing Director
(212) 547-2777
severin.white@digitalbridge.com

Media:
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
Jon Keehner / Sarah Salky
(212) 355-4449
dbrg-jf@joelefrank.com