Building a Finance Team to Support PE-Backed Hyperscale Growth

Background

Vantage Data Centres is one of the fastest growing hyperscale data centre platforms in EMEA, operating 14 campuses across key markets, including London, Frankfurt, Milan, and Johannesburg. In 2022, Vantage raised $2.5bn, with $1.7bn allocated to EMEA expansion.

The Challenge

The CFO needed to build out a strong finance team, appointing two Finance Directors to lead:

Capex Finance: Overseeing the substantial investment across EMEA locations.

Financial Reporting: Establishing processes aligned with PE-backed large-cap standards, with IPO readiness in mind.

The Solution

Cedar executed a targeted headhunt to identify candidates with blue-chip experience and proven team-building capability:

Placed a Finance Director with strong Capex expertise from a blue-chip infrastructure background.

Placed a Finance Director with extensive reporting experience in complex, matrixed organisations.

The Results

Both candidates delivered significant contributions to Vantage’s growth and were promoted to Senior Finance Directors within two years.

Cedar provided long-term value, embedding leaders capable of driving scalable finance processes.

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