With six months to go before Kevin Ooley steps into the CEO seat at Databank, the first order of business on his list is finding his successor, he told CFO Dive.

Ooley is set to take the CEO role in January of next year — succeeding Raul Martynek, who is transitioning to the role of executive chairman, the company said in May.

“The first thing I need to do is find that replacement and then figure what responsibilities I'm going to shed and free up, so that I can then focus on that new role,” Ooley said in an interview.

At the moment, the long-time CFO has a number of other departments under his remit, including HR, legal and its corporate responsibility or ESG function. Depending on the background and skillset of the CFO candidate that’s ultimately chosen, “I might retain some of those roles,” he said.

A vote of confidence

Databank is a Dallas, Texas-based company which provides data center services and infrastructure, including “edge colocation” services, which involves places centers closer to local businesses to physically reduce the distance data needs to travel, according to its website.

Ooley’s career at the company has spanned 15 years, beginning when he first took the CFO role in 2011. After serving as finance chief for six years, he then gained additional operational responsibilities when he was also appointed to the role of president in 2017, he said.

His appointment as Databank’s new top executive was about a year in the making, he said, when Martynek first approached Ooley about stepping down from his position. The company’s board then tapped an executive search firm, Egon Zehnder, which conducted a full market sweep for both internal and external candidates, in which Ooley participated.

“Frankly, it was a little bit of a challenging process, knowing that was going on,” he said of the search. Still, “I think we, and I, in particular, said, ‘Hey, let's let this play out, we'll respect that process,’ and [being] given the opportunity to be a part of it was very exciting for me,” he said.

His long tenure and familiarity with the ins and outs of the business meant that conversations about his potential CEO candidacy with Databank’s board were less about his “100 day plan,” so to speak, and more “just trying to tease that out and understand, is this something I really wanted, is this something I was geared up and ready for? Was it just always a natural progression?” Ooley said.

Ooley has also built up a strong working relationship with Martynek, a two-decade veteran of the telecommunications industry who joined Databank in 2017, which has also helped to foster trust with the board. The two have raised several rounds of equity during their overlapping tenures, such as in 2022, when a consortium led by Swiss Life acquired a minority stake in the business for about $1.5 billion, and a $1.5 billion investment in 2024 by Australian Super.

“It was the two of us sitting there explaining our roadmap, our plan, our strategic initiatives, and how we were going to do that,” Ooley said. “Then to be able to show the results and highlight that we met those goals, I think that earned some trust” with Databank’s board, he said.

Ultimately, the boards decision to tap Ooley as its next CFO represents “a big vote of confidence for the company,” he said.

“It's a vote of confidence for the existing leadership team that we have in place, not just me, but, Joe [Minarik], our COO; Stephen [Callahan], our head of sales; Justin [Pucchio], our head of [corporate development], and the list goes all the way down, to say we like what you guys are doing, and we want to keep that strategic continuity together,” he said.

A ‘trial run’

With the length of the executive search process, as well as his long-time familiarity with the company and leadership, Ooley has been able to conduct almost a “trial run” as Databank’s future CEO, since his coming appointment was announced, he said.

“I had a year to think about every decision we made; ‘What would I be doing in that decision? How would I shape the business?’” Ooley said.

With that mindset, Ooley is also looking to ensure he is keeping his gaze on the business’ goals, which means connecting with his soon to be direct reports in the C-suite as their CEO. The company has been executing on its goals, but “it's always good to have a fresh coat of paint, have a new lens,” he said.

 “I want to sit down with each of them to say, ‘Hey, what would you like to see different? What could we do to improve?’” he said. “So, I think you're not going to see a lot of change from the outside, but I think what we'll do is just [take] a chance to just do a quick refresh of, ‘what are our priorities?’”