US construction company Walbridge has introduced L5 Mission Critical, a new company focused on data centre operations, management, and related services.
The new venture, headquartered in Chicago, will provide a suite of services for data centre clients, including commissioning, site readiness, ongoing operations, retrofits, and project management.
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Matt Landek has been appointed as president and CEO of L5 Mission Critical.
Landek previously served as the Global President of JLL’s Data Center and Critical Environments division, overseeing a workforce of 2,500 employees across 340 data centres worldwide.
Landek will work in collaboration with Walbridge’s leadership, including Walbridge organisation president and CAO John Rakolta III.
Rakolta said: “As demand skyrockets, our clients not only need to get their projects up and out of the ground fast—they need critical operations and value-add services that reduce risk, ensure uptime and educate communities.
“Matt’s expertise will allow us to scale our data centre construction practice to a full build to operate model that our clients need in this complicated time. With the addition of L5 Mission Critical, our clients will be able to tap into a wider depth of service that goes across the entire lifecycle of a data centre.
“One partner across design, construction and operations. They will be able to spend less time managing handoffs and risk, while having the confidence that their critical operations are where they need to be from day one.”
The launch responds to predictions that US data centre capacity will double within three years, with nearly 45GW of additional capacity planned as AI and cloud services fuel expansion.
Walbridge aims to meet rising demand at a time when power availability, grid stability, and local opposition are posing increased challenges for new developments.
L5 Mission Critical will support third-party data centre owners as well as Walbridge clients seeking streamlined transitions from construction to ongoing operations.
The new company is also introducing a workforce training programme intended to address industry-wide skill shortages. The curriculum will provide pathways from entry-level roles to engineering and operational leadership in data centres.
L5 Mission Critical will serve hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, and other data centre operators across North America, drawing on Walbridge’s construction resources and industry partnerships.
