On this episode of the Nomad Futurist Podcast, Phil and Nabeel are joined by Tesh Durvasula, CEO at Africa Data Centers. Tesh is an experienced technology and real estate executive with a 25-year track record of successful leadership and value generation in the digital infrastructure sector. He kicks off the episode by giving listeners some insight into the company and its future plans:

“And so for the last 16/17 months, I've been CEO of Africa Data Centers, and our primary focus is to be the largest Pan-African data center provider. We currently operate in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa and have a marketing agreement in Togo. We've just announced expansions into Ghana and Rwanda, and soon you'll hear us make some announcements in North Africa and another one in the Southern African region.”

Tesh touches on some important lessons he learned while navigating the industry:

“The large corporate experience just entices you, and they keep you in a stair-step approach with blocking and tackling and moving up every two years - that was good. But, the other thing that I learned there is that you have to have a mentor or a champion.”

Nabeel asks Tesh how he was able to identify these people and how he approached them to be mentors:

“First and foremost, you gotta perform. If you go asking for help and you haven't exhausted all possibilities and or performed pretty well on your own, people just aren't gonna waste their time. It's a harsh reality of life.”

Learn more about Africa Data Centers here.