AVK has appointed Paul Hood as its new Chief Operating Officer, as the company steps up its growth in power solutions for the data centre sector across the UK and Europe.
Hood is well known in the industry, having served as Managing Director and then COO at Yondr Group, and as Global Operations Director/MD (Africa Region) at Pure Data Centres Group. He previously held senior engineering roles at Barclays (Head of Engineering, Europe) and JP Morgan (Head of Engineering Operations, EMEA). During 13 years at JP Morgan, he ran the firm’s entire data centre infrastructure across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and managed an operating budget of $90,000,000.
A systems/control engineering specialist whose remit has broadened to encompass building electrical systems, Hood’s background includes planning and administering multi-million-pound engineering budgets, inspections covering environmental, health and safety, and fire and loss prevention. He was also one of the founders of the Universal Technical College (UTC), a network of free-to-attend STEM-focused schools for 14-19-year-olds.
“I am genuinely excited about Paul joining our team,” said AVK CEO Ben Pritchard.
“He has a superb engineering brain, he is a very logical thinker and he has a real passion for working hard. Essentially, he believes in what he does. Paul doesn’t just bring vast global experience to AVK, he is a leader who has done it all. With Paul on board, AVK is going to be well placed to play a frontrunning role in the critical infrastructure power space in the UK and Europe.”
Hood added, “I’ve known AVK for 30 years and I understand exactly where the company has come from and where it is going in this incredibly competitive industry. I am delighted to be working with some of the most committed infrastructure engineers in the world. I told Yondr I would build them a global business that they could be proud of and that’s exactly what I did. I leave that company with fond memories having been there from the start but it’s time to move on and I’m now incredibly excited about what’s in store for me at AVK.
“I have a reputation for bringing the whole ‘boots to boardroom’ element of being a COO; I’ve worked as an engineer and I want to be an enabler for our engineers and take their viewpoint to the board. I’m also known for investing in people, getting decisions done and getting things over the line and I’m truly excited about my forthcoming journey at AVK.”
