The critical future of Britain’s data centres - Dawn Childs, Pure Data Centres Group

02/11/25 • 29 min

Dame Dawn Childs, CEO of Pure Data Centres Group, discusses the significance of the government’s decision to designate data centres as critical national infrastructure, the potential for the green energy transition to be supported, not hindered, by the power demands of AI and why Britain needs more engineers.

Pure Data Centres Group designs, builds and operates white-label data centres, with some of the world's largest tech firms as their customers. Childs joined the company in 2021 and has been its chief executive since May 2023. Before running one of Britain’s top data centre companies, Childs had a distinguished career which included engineering and executive roles at the National Grid, Gatwick Airport and the Royal Airforce.

Previous Episode

Do tech firms really need more masculinity? - Viv Paxinos, AllBright CEO

DEI is under attack. US President Donald Trump has begun a crusade to strip diversity policies from government institutions, while senior tech leaders like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg have called for workplaces to become ‘more masculine’ despite the fact that the social media giant’s workforce is already male-dominated.

Is now really the time to tear up the DEI rulebook, or are there good reasons to embrace the positive attitude to diversity that many large corporations have taken over the past decade?

Viv Paxinos is CEO of AllBright, where she leads a global collective of 500,000 ambitious women committed to creating a more equitable world for all. She believes in maintaining a people-first culture through nurturing and mentoring talent to create a best-in-class working environment.

Next Episode

The rise of the AI audit – Vidya Peters, CEO, DataSnipper

Vidya Peters, CEO of DataSnipper, discusses how artificial intelligence is changing the age-old profession of auditing, why it's good to be sceptical of grand government announcements, but there is genuine excitement around Labour's AI plans and why European founders should look beyond their borders when fundraising.

DataSnipper provides audit and finance teams with an intelligent automation platform to reduce the burden of overly manual auditing. Peters believes that alongside auditing, AI has massive potential to relieve the intense pressure on Britain's public services, in particular for the NHS and education system.