Orion Partners With Infrastructure Masons Veterans Coalition to Raise Awareness of the Digital Infrastructure Industry

Blogs
>
Orion Partners With Infrastructure Masons Veterans Coalition to Raise Awareness of the Digital Infrastructure Industry

Orion has recently partnered with Infrastructure Masons (IM), a non-profit, professional association made up of individual technology and business leaders around the globe. This partnership is focused on raising awareness of the Digital Infrastructure industry within the military community (which includes, but is not limited to active, guard and reserve; veteran support organizations; and functional affiliate groups).

Lee Kirby, Chairman & Co-Founder, Salute Mission Critical, serves as the IM Veterans Global Lead and a member of the IM Advisory Council. Lee recently joined Orion’s From the Battlefield to the Boardroom podcast to discuss his post-military career in the data center industry, why the industry is a great fit for veterans, and the resources available to veterans through IM.

Lee says that a common misconception about careers in the data center industry is that you must have a technical skill set. “Every skill set that the military has, the data center industry uses,” he explained. “You don’t have to be a technician to have a place in this industry. We also need security guards, people who are cleaning the data centers or working the loading docks. There’s not a single military specialty that I can think of that can’t be adapted to data centers,” said Lee.

Infrastructure Masons was established in 2016 in the US and Europe, with 2,000+ active participants in over 60 countries representing over $150B in infrastructure projects in 139 countries. The organization is steered by a leadership team comprised of Board & Advisory Council members that build and operate some of the largest digital infrastructure portfolios in the world.

The goal of Infrastructure Masons is to provide a place where infrastructure professionals connect, grow and give back. “By offering free memberships to veterans, they can join even prior to leaving the military to start becoming attuned to the important trends and forward thinking processes that the data center is going through to continue to fuel the digital economy,” said Lee.

Listen to the full podcast here, and visit us online to learn more about our partnership with Infrastructure Masons.