Full Name
Sam Rudek
Job Title
Chief Operating Officer
Company
Flexential
Speaker Bio
Sam Rudek serves as Chief Operating Officer at Flexential, where he leads the company's development, engineering, product strategy, infrastructure management, and service delivery functions. In this role, he is responsible for ensuring operational excellence across Flexential's national data center footprint while advancing the company's growth strategy and delivery of secure, scalable, high-performance infrastructure solutions.
With more than 20 years of experience in data center operations, engineering, construction, and mission-critical infrastructure, Rudek has built and scaled some of the industry's most complex operational environments. Before joining Flexential, he served as Chief Operating Officer for CBRE's Data Center Solutions business, where he oversaw operations across a 3,000-person engineering and operations organization spanning 350 data centers and a $1.2 billion capital asset upgrade and modernization program. He led HSE, technical, and reliability optimization across the portfolio and partnered with global leaders and OEMs to enhance CBRE's Global Operational Excellence Academy. He also helped drive key changes to operational processes, introducing process enhancements, human factors training, and AI analysis that reduced human-caused downtime by 30%.
Prior to CBRE, Rudek held senior leadership roles at World Wide Technology, BGIS/Schneider Electric, and IES Communications, where he guided the company’s data center division to profitability within 14 months. Throughout his career, he has led large-scale infrastructure deployments, capacity expansion initiatives, and operational transformation programs for enterprise, hyperscale, and colocation environments. His experience spans greenfield and brownfield data center development, global operations management, digital transformation, and workforce development.
Recognized for building high-performing teams and driving reliability at scale, Rudek combines deep technical expertise with a hands-on leadership style focused on customer outcomes, operational rigor, and continuous improvement. He is an active member of AFCOM, ASHRAE, the Uptime Institute, and Infrastructure Masons (iMasons).
With more than 20 years of experience in data center operations, engineering, construction, and mission-critical infrastructure, Rudek has built and scaled some of the industry's most complex operational environments. Before joining Flexential, he served as Chief Operating Officer for CBRE's Data Center Solutions business, where he oversaw operations across a 3,000-person engineering and operations organization spanning 350 data centers and a $1.2 billion capital asset upgrade and modernization program. He led HSE, technical, and reliability optimization across the portfolio and partnered with global leaders and OEMs to enhance CBRE's Global Operational Excellence Academy. He also helped drive key changes to operational processes, introducing process enhancements, human factors training, and AI analysis that reduced human-caused downtime by 30%.
Prior to CBRE, Rudek held senior leadership roles at World Wide Technology, BGIS/Schneider Electric, and IES Communications, where he guided the company’s data center division to profitability within 14 months. Throughout his career, he has led large-scale infrastructure deployments, capacity expansion initiatives, and operational transformation programs for enterprise, hyperscale, and colocation environments. His experience spans greenfield and brownfield data center development, global operations management, digital transformation, and workforce development.
Recognized for building high-performing teams and driving reliability at scale, Rudek combines deep technical expertise with a hands-on leadership style focused on customer outcomes, operational rigor, and continuous improvement. He is an active member of AFCOM, ASHRAE, the Uptime Institute, and Infrastructure Masons (iMasons).
