The International Data Center Authority (IDCA) today announced that Winston Ma will lead a new sustainable digital infrastructure project development financing unit aimed at enhancing the digital economies of emerging and developing nations as well as underserved communities anywhere in the world.
Our intent has always been to help the world build sustainable digital economies.” Mehdi Paryavi, IDCA Chairman & CEO said, “Effective investments into key sustainable and resilient digital infrastructure projects that will help communities and economies of all scales prosper is one of our vital initiatives for this industry on a global scale.
“No region on Earth and no economic or societal realm can be left behind in the transformative Metaverse economy.”— Winston Ma, Vice Chair, Chief Investment Officer, IDCA
“Our focus will be particularly on those projects that are aligned with furthering digital-first economy objectives, as well as ESG and UNSDG principles, programs and goals.”
Most recently, for a period of 10 years, Ma was managing director and head of the North American Office for China Investment Corporation (CIC), that country’s largest sovereign wealth fund. Prior to that, Ma served as the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, a vice president at J.P. Morgan investment banking, and a corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.
“Trillions of dollars of advanced cloud and digital infrastructure will be urgently needed for the world’s sustainable digital economy transition and growth,” said Ma. “We intend that IDCA, with its long-proven expertise in digital infrastructure, data centers, cloud, and digital-economic development, will take a leading global role in this powerful long-term trend.”
Ma is an investor, attorney, author, and adjunct professor on the topic of the global digital economy. He is one of a small number of native Chinese who has worked as investment professionals and practicing capital markets attorneys in both the United States and China.
He currently serves as co-founder and managing partner of CloudTree Ventures, a seed to early growth stage venture capital firm empowering interactive entertainment companies. He is currently the board chair of Nasdaq-listed SPAC, the Mountain & Co. Acquisition Corp., headquartered in Zurich. He is also an advisory board member of international IT services provider and consultancy Capgemini SE and an Adjunct Professor at NYU Law School.
“Meeting the digital infrastructure market expansion demand that is forecast to be necessary for the global build-out of the Metaverse economy the next era of digital transformation will be a challenge for the full breadth of the IoT edge-to-hyperscale-cloud data center and digital infrastructure sector,” Ma said.
Ma is a well-known author in the digital-first economy field, with three books to his credit. His most recent (published in September 2022, available on Amazon) is Blockchain and Web3: Building the Cryptocurrency, Privacy and Security Foundations of the Metaverse. He is also the author of The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy and The Digital Silk Road: China’s New Growth Story.
“Metaverse is really just shorthand for an entire set of decentralized and distributed technologies, including AI, GAI, blockchain, tokenization, AR, VR and interactive, immersive, experiential XR media and Web3, which in various combinations will be applied in multiple ways in every field of human endeavor, we believe,” Ma said.
“No region on Earth and no economic or societal realm can be left behind in the transformative Metaverse economy. Equally critically, the world’s most advanced industrial nations and market economies must help nations in the developing world build their own digital infrastructures to be able to fully participate in this new chapter of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
The World Economic Forum named Ma Young Global Leader in 2013, and he has been a member of the Council for Long-Term Investing and the Council for Digital Economy and Society. He is a member of New York University (NYU) President’s Global Council. In 2014 he received the NYU Distinguished Alumni Award.
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