Insights

Christopher "C.J." Maier

Senior Vice President, Implementation

As the Senior Vice President for Implementation, C.J. brings to bear his extensive background in the infrastructure industry, including wireless, fiber optics, transportation, water, and renewable energy. His work to date includes site acquisition, land use entitlements, contracting, project management, construction management, operations, local, state, and federal government affairs, and strategy development. Prior to Cielo, C.J. held senior positions with responsibilities across the U.S. for Verizon Wireless, Crown Castle, Zayo and NextEra Energy. C.J. has committed his career to the digital infrastructure industry and, in2016/2017, served as chairman of the Wireless Infrastructure Association’s HetNet Forum.


C.J. earned a B.A. in International Affairs from Florida State University and an M.B.A. in International Business from Rollins College. Based in Orlando and a native of Central Florida, C.J. is active in the greater community, serving as a Florida Governor appointee to the Central Florida Expressway Authority Governing Board. C.J. also served on the Florida Public Service Commission Nominating Council, the Orlando Economic Partnership Board of Directors, the Regional Council for Leadership Florida, Metro Plan Orlando’s Community Advisory Committee, Project Lead the Way for Orange County, and as president of the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business Alumni Board of Directors.

David Shepard

Chief Executive Officer

David is a digital infrastructure veteran with over 25 years building teams and growing organizations. At Cielo David is dedicated to identifying commercial opportunities across the digital infrastructure landscape and growing the Cielo team. Prior to establishing Cielo, David served as Vice President of Integrated Modular Solutions and Custom Thermal at Vertiv. David worked closely with Vertiv’s President to manage innovation efforts across the organization driving productivity and growing Vertiv’s market share.

David served as Chief Revenue Officer for GIGA Data Centers where he was responsible for all commercial aspects of the business. David also served as the Executive Vice President, General Manager of BASELAYER hardware division. He was responsible for all facets of the hardware business unit including sales, marketing, product development, manufacturing, and customer service. In addition, David acted as Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales at both BASELAYER and IO Data Centers where he led sales and marketing initiatives most notably owning the development of IO’s Private Cloud product and delivering data centers as service to Fortune 100 companies. David’s leadership background includes senior roles with FORTRUST, a Colorado-based data center colocation company where he led FORTRUST’s transition to modular data center deployments resulting in their acquisition by Iron Mountain. Prior to transitioning to the data center industry, David acted as Chief Operating Officer of Totaltix, a SAAS ticketing application that assists professional athletes in managing their contractual ticket allotments. He successfully grew the business and spearheaded the sale of the business to MLBAM.