Willis, a business of insurance and reinsurance broker WTW, has established a dedicated Data Centre Industry Practice for Asia, with Lay See Ong appointed to lead the new unit as Practice Leader in Asia, based in Singapore.
She brings deep expertise in Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) and complex infrastructure sectors. Lay See has worked at Willis for a decade with a proven track record in strategic client leadership and strong insights into this rapidly evolving sector.
According to Willis, this new unit aims to tap into the ongoing unprecedented growth of the Data Centre sector in Asia, as the region is likely to be the fastest-growing one for data centre colocation over the next five years.
According to Global Data, the pipeline of data centre construction projects is estimated to be about $160 billion in South, Southeast Asia and Australasia. Willis sees growth in the region’s data centres to be driven by demand in Indonesia, the Philippines, and India in the coming years.
The Data Centre Industry Practice will deliver a customer-centric proposition, bringing together expertise from all lines of business. By collaborating with global and regional specialists, Willis will present a unified offering through a single, integrated proposition, supporting companies in navigating the complex risk landscape of the data centre sector.
Luke Ware, Head of Asia at WTW, commented, “This dynamic sector presents a complex insurance landscape, with stakeholders ranging from financiers and developers to operators and tenants. Data Centres face a broad spectrum of risks, including natural hazards, business interruption, environmental exposures and cyber threats, across every stage of their lifecycle, from financing and construction to operations.
He continued, “The world’s largest technology firms are moving to Southeast Asia to build data centres at a time when demand for infrastructure and computing power to enable AI is rapidly rising. We are committed to building specialist expertise for Data Centres, and this appointment reflects our dedication to supporting clients with innovative solutions and industry-leading risk advisory services for this sector.”
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