The Green Grid Appoints Lawrence Vertal as Executive Director

At a press conference in Japan today, The Green Grid announced the appointment of Lawrence (Larry) Vertal as Executive Director.  In this new role, Mr. Vertal will champion the organization’s mission to advance energy efficiency in data centers and the broader ecosystem of business computing. He will work with the organization’s global membership, alliance organizations, and end-user Advisory Council to continue the development of collaborative, vendor-neutral best-practices, metrics, and specifications.

 

As Executive Director, Mr. Vertal will report to the Board of Directors of The Green Grid, which consists of representatives from AMD, APC by Schneider Electric, Dell, EMC Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems.  

 

“Energy efficiency has never been a more important topic for technology vendors and their customers, and The Green Grid is making tremendous strides in creating the metrics and methodologies that help data center managers define and improve that efficiency,” said Larry Vertal, executive director of The Green Grid.  “I plan to help The Green Grid continue its highly-successful work, and I look forward to working with many global organizations and companies to collaborate on new achievements.” 

 

Mr. Vertal, who was named by InformationWeek magazine as one of the “15 Innovators & Influencers for 2008”, brings to the role more than two decades of operational management, strategic relations, corporate governance and marketing experience with technology companies.  His range of success spans from startups to Fortune 100 corporations. A full professional biography can be found here.

 

“The Green Grid has developed into a strong organization that is making great strides in delivering industry-standard data center metrics and tools,” said John Tuccillo, a director of The Green Grid.  “Larry was instrumental in building The Green Grid consortium, and we are certain that the organization will increase its impact under his leadership.”

 

Advancing Data Center Energy Efficiency

 

Founded in early 2007, The Green Grid has established a global footprint in improving energy efficiency in data centers.  The Green Grid has developed the globally-adopted PUE and DCiE metrics, created free online tools that help data center operators determine energy and financial savings through the use of free cooling, built alliances with other consortia and government institutions, and has expanded its presence in Europe and Japan.  All white papers that are available to the general public can be downloaded at no cost from the Library and Toolssection of The Green Grid’s Web site.

 

The Green Grid Board of Directors consists of John Tuccillo, Chairman of the Board and President (APC by Schneider Electric), Roger Tipley, Vice-President (Hewlett-Packard), Christian Belady, Treasurer (Microsoft), Tom Brey, Secretary (IBM) , Andrew Fox (AMD), John Pflueger (Dell), Kathrin Winkler (EMC Corporation), Jim Pappas (Intel), and Mark Monroe (Sun Microsystems).

 

Reporting to the Board of Directors are the Technical Committee, led by John Pflueger, Chairman (Dell) and Jon Haas, Vice-Chairman (Intel); the Communications Committee, led by Andrew Fox, Chairman (AMD), and Michelle O’Brien, Vice-Chairman (APC by Schneider Electric); and the Liaison Committee, led by Jim Pappas, Chairman (Intel), and Vice-Chairman Jay Taylor (Dell).

 

In addition, an Advisory Council consisting of global end-users provides guidance to The Green Grid Board of Directors.  The Advisory Council provides feedback and helps influence the consortium’s strategy for developing and promoting standards, measurement methods, processes and technologies to improve overall data center energy efficiency worldwide.