Ayotunde Coker Joins Open Access Data Centres as CEO

African data center industry pioneer Dr. Ayotunde Coker has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of transformational pan-African data center operator Open Access Data Centres (OADC), effective immediately.

Under his direction, OADC will build and run a pan-African network of top-notch, client-focused Tier III certified data center facilities as well as a distinctive core-to-edge open-access edge data center ecosystem made up of hyperscale, regional, and OADC Edge DCs.

Dr. Coker, who was born in Nigeria, has more than 35 years of worldwide experience in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa. He has served as CEO and Managing Director of Rack Centre for the past eight years, growing the company into a household name in West Africa and a leading data center brand in Africa with recognition on a worldwide scale and multiple international accolades.

Prior to that, he served as Group CIO of Access Bank and as MD/CEO of Emerging Markets Payments, West Africa, where he repositioned the company as a leading player in its market. In the UK, he held prestigious positions with Ford, Cap Gemini, eMCSaatchi UK, Egg Bank, British Petroleum, and the UK Ministry of Justice throughout the course of his 28-year career.

Dr. Coker received a Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of South Wales, which was sponsored by Shell, and is a postgraduate alumni of Cranfield University, which was funded by Ford of Europe and gave him the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2020. In addition to serving as Chair of the UK Government Enterprise Architecture Board, he has received multiple corporate leadership accolades and is currently President of the Africa Data Centres Association.

Dr. Coker commented on his appointment by stating, “This is a dynamic time for businesses in Africa as transformation is fueling the rapid construction of the digital infrastructure on the continent. I’m thrilled to be joining OADC, which will play a significant part in developing the pan-African digital infrastructure and cloud ecosystem that will support this expansion. OADC will assist major corporations in expanding their operations and reach across the continent by providing support to cloud operators, content providers, the wholesale community, and cloud providers.

With the construction of a network and dynamic ecosystems of top-notch, open-access digital infrastructure at key interconnection sites across the continent, I am honored to be heading OADC in improving Africa’s digital capabilities. a chance for Africa to surpass the rest of the globe.

The CEO of the WIOCC Group, Chris Wood, continued, “I am overjoyed to welcome Tunde as CEO of Open Access Data Centres at this pivotal time in the company’s growth. We are now modernizing Africa’s digital infrastructure with the largest deployment of open-access national, regional, and edge data centers ever in Africa after securing $200 million in funding by the end of 2021. The development of the company will undoubtedly be greatly aided by Tunde’s breadth and depth of experience, leadership, prominence, and connections in the African data center sector.

Dr. Coker has chosen to be based in Lagos, Nigeria, which is in the middle of Africa and is home to the newest Tier III open-access data center operated by OADC on the biggest data center campus in West Africa.