Brussels, 24 March 2026. Today, the Board of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact (CNDCP or The Pact) announces that it has voted to appoint Professor Lex Coors as its new Chairman. Professor Coors replaces Matt Pullen who stepped down as Chair after four years in the role. The CNDCP Board is elected by the Pact members and includes two representatives from national data centre associations and two from operators. The European Data Centre Association (EUDCA) and Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE), joint founders of the Pact, hold the remaining two seats.
The Pact’s Board selects its own chair and unanimously voted for Lex Coors in a board meeting held on 9th March 2026. The Board also extends is thanks to Matt Pullen for his leadership, service and dedication to the CNDCP over the past four years. It wishes him all the best in his future endeavours. Under Pullen’s chairpersonship, the CNDCP grew from a commitment from a handful of data centre operators to become climate neutral by 2030 to become an industry-wide drive to establish and meet robust and measurable targets for environmental performance. Representing over eighty percent of the data centre capacity of Europe, it works closely with the European Commission to provide insight, data and analysis on ways to achieve an environmentally sustainable digital transition.
Speaking after his appointment, Prof. Coors said: “It is truly an honour to be chosen by my peers to take up this important position. The Pact has played a considerable part in helping to define and introduce meaningful and effective measures to ensure the environmental sustainability of data centres.”
“Whilst I am proud of what we have achieved to date, there is still much to do,” Coors continued. “I am very interested in how the Pact can help investigate, educate and advise on the role of data centres in defining, testing and implementing new energy systems necessary for a digital economy.”
Professor Coors will serve an initial term of 2-years as Chairperson of the CNDCP Board.
Short biography of Prof. Coors.
Lex Coors is a prominent leader in sustainable data centre infrastructure, recognized as the “spiritual father” of modular data centre design since 1999. His work as Chief Data Centre Technology and Engineering Officer at Digital Realty underscores his commitment to environmental stewardship and technological advancement. Lex is also involved with the European Union’s SMR workgroup and Hydrogen Alliance, focusing on sustainable power solutions.
In addition to his industry contributions, Lex serves as a visiting professor at the University of East London, where he shares his insights on sustainability and energy efficiency in digital infrastructure. In June 2025, at the Datacloud Global Awards in Cannes, Lex was honoured with his 5th personal award for his Outstanding Commitment to the Data Centre Industry.
