Tom has over 30 years of leadership roles within the mission-critical industry and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for T5 Data Centers. T5's full life cycle of solutions include Build to Suit, leasing, development, construction services, facilities management and operations. T5's Forever On Data Centers are committed to sustainability and focused on renewables. Prior to T5, Mertz served as CEO of CPG. Mertz helped the company outpace the data center industry by intentionally transforming how CPG approaches the design, construction, service, monitoring and maintenance of high-powered facilities for its customers.Previously, Tom was an Executive Vice President for QTS, which owns, operates and manages state-of-the-art data center facilities around the world. Tom also spent 10 years at Lee Technologies, where he was instrumental in leading that company’s transformation into a leading solutions provider for the data center industry.Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public and Urban Affairs from Georgia State University with continued leadership education at Emory’s Goizueta Business School and George Mason University.