Over the past 12 months, CyrusOne has announced multiple high-profile executive management departures, including former President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Wojtaszek, retiring Chief Financial Officer Diane Morefield, former Interim Chief Executive Officer & President of Europe Tesh Durvasula and Chief Technology Officer Kevin Timmons.
Recent executive departures have contributed to public markets investor concern of CyrusOne’s operations and thus the valuation of its shares. Consequently, CyrusOne trades at a material discount (~3x on EV/EBITDA and ~7x on Price/AFFO) to its closest peers Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) and QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS).
However, with today’s election of Katherine Motlagh as Chief Financial Officer, CyrusOne appears to have finalized the last of its key near-term management replacements for departed executives (which include Bruce Duncan and John Hatem). We have summarized details on CyrusOne’s new appointments below:
Bruce Duncan elected as President & Chief Executive Officer of CyrusOne, effective July 6, 2020
- 40+ years of real estate management, development, and investment experience across numerous property types as CEO and Director of multiple public companies. These companies include Cadillac Fairview, Equity Residential, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and First Industrial Realty
- Investors have noted that Bruce Duncan does not have prior experience in the data center sector
John Hatem rejoined as Chief Operating Officer of CyrusOne, effective October 5, 2020
- Originally joined CyrusOne in 2011
- Prior to departing CyrusOne, his management role was Executive Vice President of Design, Construction & Operations
Katherine Motlagh elected as Chief Financial Officer of CyrusOne, effective October 30, 2020
- Former Chief Financial Officer for the Europe, Africa, and Latin America regions at American Tower
- Prior experience includes unit-level Chief Financial Officer roles at both Ericsson and Nokia
Bruce Duncan, John Hatem, and Katherine Motlagh now have the ability to deliver on a cohesive vision for the company. Furthermore, this management team should all be present on CyrusOne’s upcoming Q3 2020 conference call on October 29, 2020.
CyrusOne operates 53 data centers, representing 830 megawatts of power capacity and 7.6 million sqft. The company operates in both the United States and Europe.
