Ark Data Centres announces appointment of Jonathan Evans Lord Evans of Weardale as new Non-Executive Director

Ark Data Centres (Ark) that designs, constructs and operates the UK's most efficient data centres, has announced the appointment of Jonathan Evans, Lord Evans of Weardale as a new Non-Executive Director for the company. The ex-Director-General of the Security Service (MI5), Lord Evans will be replacing Baroness Manningham-Buller who has begun her new role with The Wellcome Trust after three years' of serving on Ark Data Centres' Board of Directors.

Commenting on the changes to the board, Huw Owen, CEO of Ark Data Centres, said: "I have thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a good deal from working with Baroness Manningham-Buller and I am truly grateful for her sterling contribution to Ark over the last three years. Our loss is doubtless The Wellcome Trust's gain and I wish her every success in her new role as Chairwoman with that incredible organisation." He continued, "I am delighted to welcome Lord Evans to the Ark team, who I have no doubt will bring vast amount of capability and experience to the table and I genuinely look forward to working with him in the coming years. We have achieved much but there is still much to get done. I look forward to the challenges ahead and establishing Ark as the UK' data centre of choice".

Lord Evans brings extensive security experience to Ark Data Centres. From 1999, Lord Evans was directly involved in countering the threat from international terrorism and, in 2001, he was appointed to the Management Board of the Security Service (MI5) as Director of international counter terrorism. Following his appointment of Deputy Director General in 2005, Lord Evans then held the position of Director-General of MI5 between 2007 and 2013.

In October 2014, it was announced that he was to become a Crossbench life peer, having been nominated personally by the Prime Minister. Lord Evans has a Certificate in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors and is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of HSBC Holdings as well as a member of the Advisory Boards of Darktrace and of Facewatch.