NextDC's Slattery to retire

The founder of data centre operator NextDC, Bevan Slattery, will step down from his position as non-executive director on the company’s board, departing the business he launched three years ago.

Slattery will retire from the company after its annual general meeting towards the end of this year. 

“It has been a terrific journey and I am excited about NextDC’s future,” he told investors. “However, my other interests in various other business including SubPartners, Megaport and the Asia-Pacific Data Centre trust (APDC) take up an increasing amount of my time.”

Chairman Roger Clarke, who also today announced he would step down from his position to a non-executive director in August, replaced by current non-executive director Ted Pretty, said Slattery was "without doubt the most talented IT entrepreneur in the Australian ICT sector".

“We respect his decision to focus on other interest as NextDC’s business moves into its next phase.”

Slattery departed from telecommunications company Pipe Networks, another organisation he founded, in 2011 to start the NextDC data centre-building business. 

He was later joined at NextDC by three former Pipe Networks directors, including Clarke, who was formerly the chairman of Pipe Networks. 

Slattery last year moved to the positions of executive director and deputy chairman, and was replaced as CEO by former Symantec Australia managing director Craig Scroggie. Scroggie had served as a non-executive director at the data centre builder for two years prior to his appointment. 

Slattery and the team early this year announced the creation of the real estate infrastructure trust fund Asia-Pacific Data Centre (APDC) Trust — an ASX-listed exercise in capital recycling where NextDC sold and leased back properties it had purchased for its data centres to re-invest the proceeds in data centre fitout and services.

NextDC yesterday announced it had sold back its 23 percent, or 26.45 million, of the APDC’s 115 million shares, to invest the $28.1 million it would receive in the accelerated rollout of its Sydney and Melbourne data centres, due to increased demand from the signing of several big name customers.

The move left Slattery and his family the majority shareholder in the APDC, with a 17 percent stake.