Event Schedule

Come early to connect with peers and get ready for a great day.

Interested in exploring the new Data Center Simulator at HTC? Stop by and check it out before the event begins.

Registration Table
Location: J120, Main Auditorium Lobby

Continental Breakfast (Prepared by Chef Denis and HTC Culinary Students)
Location: Event Center

Looking for directions and parking info?  Venue Info

Welcome!

Audience Focus:  All conference attendees
Location:  J120, Main Auditorium

AFCOM Greater Minnesota Chapter President

Opening Keynote

Audience Focus:  All conference attendees
Location:  J120, Main Auditorium

Welcome: Karen Petersburg, Powerhouse Data Centers, where she will be talking to us about, "Rebuilding collaboration in a rapidly scaling industry."

Panel 1: The Minnesota Data Center Boom: What Is Actually Being Built

Minnesota is no longer talking about data centers in the abstract. Projects are being planned permitted and built right now and the scale is fundamentally different than what communities have seen before. This panel establishes a shared fact base on what is actually being built in Minnesota today and why that reality matters for everything that follows during the day. 

Panelist Background

Thom Jackson

Thom Jackson is a Partner at Dunham Associates and a mechanical engineer with more than two decades of experience designing and commissioning data centers across the United States. He works closely with owners and operators to translate capacity performance and reliability requirements into practical mechanical system decisions. Thom is Vice President of the AFCOM Greater Minnesota Chapter and is known for his ability to explain complex infrastructure in clear plain language.

Dan Peterson

Dan Peterson is Director of Advisory Services Mission Critical at Kraus Anderson. With more than twenty five years of experience spanning data center development brokerage and advisory roles Dan helps clients navigate site selection land strategy timelines and community process. Deeply rooted in the Upper Midwest he brings practical perspective on how large scale digital infrastructure moves from concept to construction in Minnesota.

Nyssa Hughes

Nyssa Hughes is Director of Data Center Design at Prologis where she leads multidisciplinary teams delivering data center projects from early site planning through handover to operations. An architect by training Nyssa brings over a decade of experience across design development and owner side execution. She focuses on how facilities actually function including systems integration reliability and operational impacts.

Jack Ammerman

Jack Ammerman is a Principal Civil Engineer at Stantec specializing in land development for large scale industrial and mission critical projects. He supports data center clients through site due diligence, entitlement approvals, design, and permitting. Jack works closely with communities and regulators to deliver transparent processes and responsible development grounded in Minnesota planning standards. 

Jace LaCaille

Jace LaCaille is Head of Service Sales at Forgent, a Minnesota headquartered power and infrastructure manufacturer serving the data center industry. With a background in power generation and equipment lifecycle support Jace focuses on workforce needs maintenance operations and long term asset reliability. His work highlights the manufacturing and service jobs tied to data center growth in Minnesota.

Panel 2: "When Safety, Scale, Sustainability and Secruity Collide" 

As data centers scale up, four forces increasingly collide: safety, sustainability, security, and scale. This panel is designed to help the Minnesota market grow without “breaking what matters,” protecting workers, protecting communities and the environment, maintaining resilient security postures, and still delivering projects on time.

Panelist Background

Mike Miller (HDR)

Mike Miller is an Associate Vice President and Telecom and Broadband Practice Leader at HDR. With more than 30 years of experience in network planning, design, and delivery, he works at the intersection of infrastructure risk and execution for mission-critical facilities. He brings a systems-level perspective to complex programs, connecting digital infrastructure, physical assets, and operational resilience. His experience spans both public and private sector projects, and he’s known for translating technical risk into practical decisions that keep large-scale projects moving.

Adam Board (T5) 

Adam Board is Senior Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety at T5 Data Centers, overseeing safety across development construction and operations. He brings deep experience from hyperscale data center builds including prior leadership roles at Google and JE Dunn Construction, as well as large scale semiconductor projects. Adam focuses on protecting workers in fast paced environments by addressing workforce surge fatigue contractor onboarding and serious incident prevention. He is a Certified Safety Professional and Construction Health and Safety Technician.

Corey Donovan (Alta Technologies) 

Corey Donovan is President of Alta Technologies, a Minnesota based leader in data center hardware reuse and IT asset disposition. He helps operators and enterprises approach sustainability in practical budget real ways through reuse lifecycle extension and responsible end of life planning. Corey is a strong advocate for circular economy practices and data security in decommissioning. Under his leadership Alta has helped position the Twin Cities as a major hub for enterprise reuse while reducing environmental and compliance risk across the data center lifecycle.

Amy Dunton (Security Impact Collective)

Amy Dunton is Founder of Security Impact Collective, focused on translating security requirements into buildable scalable physical security for data centers. With a background spanning structured cabling compute networking and security, she brings an operator first view of how access control perimeter security and risk management scale during construction and operations. Amy works across development design and construction teams to reduce rework improve safety and balance open jobsite access with evolving security demands. She is active in national security industry committees.

Spencer Ingaldson (Darcy)

Spencer Ingaldson is Chief Commercial Officer at Darcy Solutions, a Minnesota based geothermal company specializing in groundwater enabled heating and cooling systems. His work focuses on closed loop geothermal cooling that supports high density facilities with no water consumption and no noise. Spencer brings a mechanical engineering background and deep experience in data center HVAC and infrastructure. He helps teams understand how cooling and heat rejection choices impact sustainability community perception and long term operational resilience at scale.

Panel 3:“Minnesota in Action: Coordination, Tribal Partnership, and Innovation Infrastructure”

Minnesota is no longer just talking about data center growth. We are actively building the systems to support it. What makes this moment different is not just the pace of development, but the coordination happening across the state, across communities, and across entirely different systems that do not always work together. This panel is about what has actually moved forward, what still needs to change, and how Minnesota aligns early to get this right.

Panelist Background

Tiffany Kovaleski

Tiffany Kovaleski is the Founder and CEO of The GOR Group, a national mission-critical workforce development firm solely focused on responsible, scalable data center growth. Headquartered in Minnesota, The GOR Group delivers direct hire recruiting, embedded trainers for on‑site training, and long‑term workforce development supporting the data center ecosystem nationwide. Through her leadership as President of MN AFCOM and her work with iMasons Armed Forces and iMasons Women, Tiffany strives to bring everyone within the community to the table to build inclusive talent pipelines, strengthen infrastructure resilience, and support sustainable, transparent economic growth. 

Roland Hill

Roland Hill is a tribal engagement liaison and consultant and the majority partner of Indigenous usiness Advisors (IBA), where he works at the intersection of economic development, infrastructure, and tribal sovereignty. He specializes in building government-to-government relationships between tribal nations, state agencies, and private industry, ensuring projects are developed through meaningful consultation and mutual benefit. Hill brings deep experience in navigating land use, environmental considerations, and cultural resource protection. His work focuses on advancing responsible development models that create long-term economic opportunities for tribal communities while supporting collaborative, transparent partnerships across Minnesota.

Matthew Hickey

Matthew Hickey is the Managing Director of the Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub Minnesota, where he helps companies and researchers engage with the Department of Defense and transition dual use technologies into real world applications. A U.S. Army officer with combat experience, Matt brings a national security lens to compute infrastructure, energy resilience, and innovation. His work focuses on translating defense needs into practical opportunities for industry, partnerships, and regional growth.

Colleen Eddy

MN AFCOM Board Member and Metro Regional Business Development Manager at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. She supports business expansion and site readiness across the Twin Cities and works closely with public and private partners. Colleen is a member of the Minnesota Business First Stop Data Center Working Group and brings practical insight into how infrastructure, workforce, and policy align in Minnesota.

Panel 4: "The Energy Mix That Will Decide Minnesota’s Data Center Future" 

This is the anchor session of the day. Minnesota’s data center growth is fundamentally constrained—or enabled—by the energy mix we can deliver at scale: grid capacity and transmission, firm generation, and the pace of clean energy buildout. This panel puts multiple energy pathways on the same stage to discuss what is realistic, what timelines look like, and what trade-offs Minnesota will need to navigate

Panelist Background: 

Kevin Cunningham 

Kevin is the Director of Preconstruction and Power at Oppidan Investment Company, where he leads early stage planning for complex developments with a strong emphasis on power availability, utility coordination, and infrastructure strategy. He partners closely with utilities, engineers, and development teams to align site selection, project timelines, and long term energy needs. Kevin brings deep practical insight into mission critical and large scale development and serves as a Board Member of MN AFCOM, advancing collaboration, workforce awareness, and industry education across Minnesota.

Tom Lambrecht 

Tom is the Manager of Economic Development Services at Great River Energy, where he leads economic development strategy and large load coordination across 26 member electric cooperatives statewide. With more than 20 years of experience, Tom works directly on data center site readiness, transmission planning coordination, and utility timeline alignment for energy intensive projects. He brings a candid and practical view of what the Minnesota grid can realistically support and how power, financing, and development come together to advance major projects responsibly.

Cliff Cain 

Cliff is the President of Pulsar Helium, leading commercial strategy and government engagement for one of the most advanced primary helium development projects in Minnesota. Cliff brings deep experience in dispatchable gas supply, energy security, regulatory navigation, and market development, with particular insight into fuel risk, permitting realities, and how domestic gas resources may support reliability needs for data center growth.

David Reamer 

David is the Chief Development Officer at Geronimo Power and former President of Geronimo Energy. He has over 25 years of experience as a founder, CEO, and investor in technology companies and the energy industry. With a B.S. from the University of Minnesota, his customer-first approach to business has driven his career path from venture-backed entrepreneurial start-ups, to executive roles in the Board Room.  

Aaron Tucker 

Aaron is the Representative of 62Cool, which is focused on hydrogen enabled and advanced direct to chip cooling approaches aimed at improving thermal efficiency and reducing total facility energy consumption. Aaron will help distinguish hydrogen for power versus hydrogen for cooling and efficiency and outline what infrastructure, cost, safety, and code conditions would need to exist for hydrogen pathways to matter at data center scale in Minnesota.

Hennepin Technical College proudly celebrates the opening of its new Data Center Simulator, made possible through the leadership and support of the Greater Minnesota AFCOM Chapter and its member community. Industry partners came together to contribute labor, donated equipment, and financial support, demonstrating a shared commitment to workforce development. This collaborative effort reflects the power of community driven investment in education and provides students with hands on exposure to real world data center environments. Together, AFCOM and Hennepin Technical College are building a sustainable talent pipeline that will support Minnesota’s mission critical industry and create quality careers for years to come.

It is time to celebrate the day!

Audience Focus:  All conference attendees
Location:  Commons area at HCTC