eBay today significantly strengthened the leadership of its data center operations, appointing veteran industry thought leader Dean Nelson as its senior director of global data center strategy, architecture and operations.

Nelson is the founder of Data Center Pulse, an exclusive group of more than 1,100 global datacenter owners, operators and users in 41 countries that influence the industry from the perspective of the end user. A long-time executive at Sun Microsystems, Nelson has distinguished himself with a long record of innovation managing the company’s global technical infrastructure portfolio.

A prolific blogger and author of two whitepapers currently in release, Nelson’s cutting-edge thinking on energy efficient, environmentally friendly data center design and operation has earned him the respect of his colleagues. At eBay, Nelson is being called to lead the company’s data center strategy which includes completing the state of the art facility in Utah that is being built to LEED Gold standards and will serve as a showcase for the latest innovations in electrical, mechanical and cooling technologies.

“We are bringing the best technologists into key leadership positions at eBay, and Dean will be responsible for driving the datacenters which are at the very core of our business,” said Mazen Rawashdeh, vice president of technology operations for eBay Marketplaces.

eBay : Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, StubHub, Shopping.com and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.