Todd Coleman - Honored as CEO of the Month by CEO Exchange - eStruxture

Written by Angela Adam | Sep 7, 2018 4:00:00 AM

How long have you been the CEO of eStruxture?

I’ve held executive and C-level positions in technology for more years than I care to admit. I founded eStruxture nearly 2 years ago.

What do you love most about your job and why?

I truly love building the business, whether that is recruiting and developing employees who will make a positive impact, driving company culture, winning the hearts and minds of investors and banking partners, working through the art and complexity of business acquisitions, or sitting down with our customers and partners to better understand how we can work together and giving them our word that we will not let them down. While this is an infrastructure business at its core, it’s really a business built around people and relationships – that’s what drives me.

What do you dislike most about your job and why?

For sure, it’s the travel. I am on the road nearly 4 days a week, every week. However, I am a big believer in face time and being personally involved in many facets of the business. When you have employees and facilities across Canada, it’s important to be present to stay connected with our teams to help drive the company culture and stay involved in key company initiatives. Further, we have over 800 customers located in over 30 countries around the world. Every one of those customers is key to our success and we absolutely believe in the importance of customer touch from every single person in the company.

What is your biggest concern or challenge as a CEO?

Probably like a lot of CEOs, my biggest challenge is time management. We have a lot of incredible opportunities in front of us and balancing my calendar and the need and desire to be in multiple places, multiple meetings all at once. And then, of course, being able to quickly switch gears at any given moment from the tactical minutia of any particular project to determining our long-term growth strategy, to all the financial needs in between, requires a fair amount of focus. Thankfully, I am surrounded by an incredible team that helps me balance those demands, cover for me and even push me out of the way when necessary.

What do you see as your biggest opportunity in the next 12 months ahead (for your company and/or the industry at large)?

We are excited by the continued proliferation and localization of data, and what that means for the data center industry as a whole. Customer needs are evolving, and that requires us to be more in tune with the unique demands of their applications, and work to develop and adopt new and flexible strategies to satisfy those needs, while still staying true to our core competency of building and operating mission critical facilities. The data center market, particularly in Canada is also evolving, and there will be further consolidation of operators as the needs of the customers evolve and the capital intensity of the business increases. We plan to continue to drive market consolidation, expand our geographies, and find new and creative ways of serving unique customer applications and ecosystems.

Who do you look up to?

I am not sure I have any one person. I look up to Nelson Mandela for his ability to rise up from atrocity and unite people across even the worst of human divide; to Steve Jobs for his ability to focus on the tiniest of details as differentiators, and his vision and ability to think past what customers are asking for and to develop what customers did not even know that they needed or desired; to Warren Buffet for reminding us that there is a big difference between capitalism and greed, and that modesty and roots are important, no matter what your socioeconomic status is; and to my family and friends for providing constant clarity on what is truly important in life.

What do you enjoy outside of work?

It varies. I love being active – working out, biking, skiing, boating. Anything outdoors. Anything with live music. A great restaurant. Being on the beach or water, anywhere.

How do you want to be remembered?

As someone who is fair, whose word means everything, who is transparent and loyal, who made a positive impact on others, who gave more than I took, and as someone who never asked more of others than I was prepared to ask of myself.

If given the ability, what is one thing you would change about the world?

That’s simple – world unity. We can all dream.

For more information on CEO Exchange, visit theceoexchange.net.

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