The Northern Virginia Technology Council hosted its inaugural Data Center Leadership Awards

The Northern Virginia Technology Council hosted its inaugural Data Center Leadership Awards on April 24 as a result of the growth of the data center industry in the region.

The ticketed event took place at the Stone Tower Winery and was sponsored by various organizations including Amazon Web Services, Google, Loudoun County Virginia Economic Development, Microsoft and Facebook. The event included a fireside chat featuring Virginia Speaker of the House Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights), senior Virginia Senator Janet Howell (D-Fairfax), Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) President and CEO Stephen Moret and Virginia Senator Frank Ruff (R-Mecklenburg), chair of the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee.

Our distinguished panel of speakers at the NVTC Data Center Leadership Awards. #NVTC #datacenter pic.twitter.com/OcuXXorKRi

— NVTC (@NoVaTechCouncil) April 24, 2019

The council live tweeted the award ceremony where a handful of data center professionals were recognized in specific categories for their work. Here are the inaugural winners:

• Data Center Community Champion: Erich Sanchack of Digital Realty
• Data Center Construction Project Award: Jon Duffey, Bob Shawver, Chris Jewell, Nick Cunningham and Mark Rainey of HITT
• Data Center Industry Icon: Bill Stein of Digital Realty
• Data Center Sustainable Champion: Dave Smith of Microsoft
• Trailblazer Award: Buddy Rizer of the Loudoun County Department of Economic Development and James Leach of RagingWire Data Centers

For the Data Center Legislative Champion Award, the judges chose to recognize a class of honorees that includes Virginia State Senator Ryan McDougle, Virginia Delegate Tim Hugo and the Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ Jeanine Lawson and Marty Nohe.