Goodman Hires Former Microsoft Exec Kraig Knight to Lead Data Centre Unit

Having earlier this year raised $2.8 billion in part to expand its data centre business, Australia’s Goodman Group on Monday announced new leadership for its digital infrastructure initiative.

Kraig Knight has joined the Sydney-based industrial specialist as executive vice president for data centre operations, Goodman said in a statement, which tied the hire to the company’s digital development plans.

“Kraig’s expertise across data centre design, construction and operations will see him build out the operational capabilities of the data centre business in line with developing our 5GW global power bank, Goodman Group chief executive Greg Goodman said in the statement. He added that, “Kraig will play a key role in advancing Goodman’s global data centre strategy and offering for customers.”

With Goodman having broken ground on a 49.5MW Los Angeles data centre last month, Knight will be based in the United States, while overseeing the company’s digital infrastructure business globally.

Microsoft, Amazon and the US Navy

Having once worked as an electrician’s mate in the US Navy, Knight spent more than six years with Microsoft’s data centre team before joining Goodman this month.

“Joining Goodman at this point in its data centre growth story is a rare opportunity to complement a team experienced in the development of complex infrastructure,” Knight said. He added that, “By pairing our demonstrated capacity delivery with operational expertise, we’ll be able to improve speed-to-market for customers and provide them with the operational flexibility they require to meet their own data centre business growth goals.”

Goodman expects Knight to develop and execute a flexible operational model to meet customers’ needs for critical infrastructure, IT operations, physical security and network operations, according to the statement.

The hire follows a data centre recruitment drive over the last 18 months that saw Goodman add a number of digital infrastructure veterans to its team, including former Schneider Electric executive Bradley Harrower, who joined as head of customer solutions with the data centre team in Sydney during February.

Since mid-2023 Knight served as general manager of data centre central operations at Microsoft after earlier working as general manager of global data centre construction. The East Texas A&M graduate also has previous experience with Capitol Power Group and Amazon.

Designs on Digital

Outlining its data centre plans in its annual financial results in February, Goodman said it has a global power bank of 5 gigawatts across 13 key cities, including 2.6GW already secured and 2.4GW in advanced stages of procurement. The secured power consists of 0.5GW stabilised, 0.4GW in progress and 1.7GW in the pipeline.

Data centres make up 46 percent of the company’s current work in progress across 68 projects with an estimated end value totalling A$13 billion and a forecast yield on cost of 6.7 percent, the company said at the time.

In addition to breaking ground on  the Los Angeles data centre in March, earlier this month Goodman filed documents for an A$1.2 billion ($722 million), 90MW facility in Sydney dubbed ‘Project Mars.’