Below are the biographies of some of the ARI Contributing Members, who help to steer our research using their extensive experience in different parts of the data center industry.

We expect to announce the names of further panel members soon.

Alex Preston
Alex Preston is a freelance journalist and editor, who previously edited the online and print versions of Zerodowntime (ZDT). A well-known figure in the power publishing sector, Alex has edited Worldwide Independent Power (WIP), launched American Independent Power (AIP) and helped develop Independent Power Asia (AIP), as well as contributing to other trade and in-house company publications. During his time at ZDT, he built-up an interest in green and sustainable IT and datacenter builds, and helped develop closer relationships with the power industry. He has also presided over conference sessions at DatacenterDynamics' global series of conferences and expos in the US, continental Europe and the UK.

Randy J. Ortiz
Randy J. Ortiz is a veteran of the data center environment and is the founder and president of the Data Center Journal, an industry publication for the data center community. The Data Center Journal (www.datacenterjournal.com) is a free online publication that covers IT, Facilities and Design topics that impact the data center professional. In addition, the Data Center Journal is available in print quarterly. Subsidiary companies include DCJ Education a provider of education classes for data center professionals and DCJ Uptime an analyst and consulting company to the data center community. Randy's background in the data center environment comes from his 15 years of architectural/engineering design, construction/project management and property condition assessments of data center spaces. He continues to remain engaged in the data center community through the Data Center Journal's research and education program that maintains a constant pulse on the industry. Randy is a strong proponent of creating a holistic data center standard and the development of an international organization for data center professionals. Through Randy's guidance the Data Center Journal continues its pursuit of informing and educating the data center community through its publication, education programs and analyst research.

John Hatcher
John Hatcher first began working in the IT press in 2001 on Storage Network Solutions. Two years later he became the European Editor for InfoStor Europe Magazine and continued in this role until he became the launch editor of Data Centre Management Magazine. Data Centre Magazine is now the UK's number one title, and on the back of this success the Data Centre World Show was launched in February 2008. John was the organiser of the successful conference. Data Centre Management Magazine covers all aspects of the data centre, from servers and storage to power and cooling. As the market continues to grow in the UK, the magazine will continue to reflect the ever changing state of the market, and John will continue to explore subjects in the industry that he never realised would be on the radar when he launched the magazine.

Jeffrey Hill
Jeffrey Hill has more than 25 years' experience in high technology business roles. These span from technical sales, vendor management and system design right through to commercial printing, publishing, technical writing and illustration. After gaining a BA in English from Tufts University he went on to complete an MBA on the Northeastern University High Technology Program. During his professional career he has worked as Director of Vendor and Technology Assessment for SRA International, Director of Technology for ZBR Publications and Vice President of Technology for The kms Companies. Jeffrey Hill is the author of Capture/MVS user's guide and co-author of Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony user's guides.

Kevin Heslin
Kevin Heslin is editor of Mission Critical, the only magazine devoted entirely to mission critical and emergency backup applications. Founded in 2007, Mission Critical has enjoyed more than a year of uninterrupted growth and is looking forward to increasing its frequency to six times per year to go with its series of webinars, highly successful e-newsletter, and website. He is also a contributing editor to Engineered Systems. Prior to that, Kevin was editor of Energy and Power Management and Energy User News, both BNP Media publications. Kevin has also edited trade publications in the lighting and electrical construction industries and served as communications manager at the Lighting Research Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Kevin earned the M.S. in Technical Communications from Rensselaer and the B.A. in Journalism from Fordham University.