TenPeaks appoints Whineray as Independent Chairman
TenPeaks has appointed Fraser Whineray as Director and Independent Chairman following the carve-out of the New Zealand data centre business from Spark.
Whineray brings senior leadership experience across the dairy and energy sectors, including roles as chief operating officer at Fonterra and chief executive officer at Mercury. He is also a non-executive director at Waste Management and Port of Tauranga.
TenPeaks operates 11 facilities across New Zealand with 23MW of IT capacity. It is seeing demand driven by cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other digital services, and has a development pipeline of more than 130MW on owned land.
The appointment brings a senior infrastructure executive to the board as New Zealand data centre operators expand to meet rising computing demand. Across the sector, businesses have been investing in new sites and additional power capacity as customers seek more domestic processing, storage and connectivity.
Whineray's background is rooted in sectors where large-scale assets, long investment cycles and energy supply are central to growth decisions. That experience is likely to be relevant for a company whose expansion plans depend not only on customer demand, but also on land, electricity access and major capital deployment.
Before joining TenPeaks, he held roles in businesses at the centre of New Zealand's infrastructure network. His time at Mercury placed him within one of the country's largest electricity generators and retailers, while his later role at Fonterra came during a period of operational change at one of New Zealand's biggest exporters.
TenPeaks has emerged as a standalone operator following its separation from Spark, New Zealand's largest telecommunications provider. The carve-out gives the business a clearer identity in a market where data centres are becoming increasingly important to telecoms groups, cloud providers and large enterprises.
For Spark, the separation also reflects a broader trend of telecoms operators creating distinct structures around infrastructure assets. Data centres, fibre networks and towers are increasingly being treated as businesses with their own investment profiles and growth paths.
Growth plans
TenPeaks' pipeline of more than 130MW points to ambitions well beyond its current operating base. That level of planned expansion would require substantial build-out and reflects expectations that demand for local hosting and processing will continue to rise.
New Zealand's market is smaller than those in Australia, Asia and North America, but the demand drivers are similar. Companies are handling larger volumes of data, cloud adoption continues to reshape IT needs, and artificial intelligence workloads are adding pressure to existing digital infrastructure.
Mission-critical services also depend on reliable local data centre capacity. Organisations in finance, government, healthcare and telecommunications often need resilient systems located within national borders, creating a steady market for operators with established sites and room to expand.
Board appointments can be especially significant in infrastructure businesses, where growth decisions span many years and involve complex financing, operational and regulatory considerations. An independent chairman with experience in large asset businesses can play a central governance role as a company moves from carve-out to expansion.
"Fraser has an extensive career in some of New Zealand's most complex businesses, leading significant infrastructure assets and investments. I'm really excited to welcome Fraser to the TenPeaks team and have his experience and knowledge available to support our growth ambitions and deliver innovative solutions for our customers," said Michael Stribling, Chief Executive Officer, TenPeaks.
Whineray holds qualifications in chemical engineering from the University of Canterbury and in business from the University of Cambridge. He joined the TenPeaks board on 23 March 2026.