Black & White Engineering has appointed Charlie Bater as Chief Technology Officer and Paul Cook as Global Director of Technology & Innovation.
According to the company, these appointments will strengthen its technical leadership as the business continues to scale across global markets.
The appointments support Black & White’s continued growth across international markets, where the business now operates across 24 locations with a team of more than 1,000 people globally and reflect increasing demand for more integrated, data-led approaches to engineering across complex data centre and critical infrastructure projects.
Charlie Bater
Bater takes on the newly created CTO role, having joined the business eight years ago and most recently serving as Global Datacentre Director.
During that time, he has played a key role in driving regional expansion, strengthening technical standards and supporting a consistent approach to delivery across projects.
The company highlighted that his progression reflects both his experience within the data centre sector and the company’s focus on developing technical leadership from within.
The creation of the CTO position forms part of a broader development of Black & White’s technical leadership structure, designed to support continued growth, enhance engineering capability and strengthen innovation across its global teams.
Paul Cook
Working within this structure, Cook has been appointed Global Director of Technology & Innovation.
He joins the firm’s senior leadership team and will work closely with Bater to further develop a more structured approach to technology and innovation that compliments engineering expertise and strengthens how projects perform beyond handover.
The company said that Cook brings experience spanning critical infrastructure, hyperscale data centres and complex integrated environments, having worked internationally across sectors including utilities, ports, pharmaceutical R&D and healthcare.
He joins from Yondr Group, where he led technology, R&D and innovation for next-generation intelligent data centre platforms enabling greater operational insight, optimisation and performance and previously held senior roles at ISG focused on digital integration within complex-built environments.
“The strength of our people”
Charlie Bater, Chief Technical Officer at Black & White Engineering, said: “Stepping into the CTO role is an incredible opportunity and I’m grateful for the trust placed in me.
“Having grown with the business over the past seven years, I’ve seen first-hand the strength of our people and the ambition that drives Black & White.
“My focus is to build on our position as a leading data centre design consultancy by further enabling a technical function that drives innovation, supports our teams and ensures we continue delivering high-quality solutions for our clients across global markets,” he concluded.
“Improve performance and resilience”
Paul Cook added: “A consistent theme throughout my career has been understanding how complex environments operate in practice and how better integration of infrastructure, digital capability and operational processes can improve performance and resilience.
“At Black & White, the opportunity is to build a Technology and Innovation capability that is practical and supports how projects are delivered day to day, while also ensuring that buildings are designed to provide operational insight and enable effective performance over their lifecycle, supported by a structured research and development framework that ensures innovation is captured and applied in a measurable way.”
He continued: “That means being clear about where technology adds value, improving how data is used and strengthening decision-making from the earliest stages of a project.”