Welcome to Season Eleven of Conversations in Cleantech!
This season, we're exploring the talent equation, examining the people, skills, and leadership required to accelerate the energy transition. From workforce strategy and culture, to talent development and organisational growth, we'll explore what it really takes to build the teams driving the sector forward.
In this episode, Jenny Gladman and Chloe England are joined by Tony Burkart, Senior Vice President of Public Policy & Public Affairs at Beale Infrastructure - a leader helping shape how digital infrastructure is developed, communicated and integrated into local communities.
As demand for data centres continues to grow, Tony argues that success depends on far more than power, land, and capital. The future of infrastructure will be determined by trust: how developers engage with communities, communicate their purpose, and create lasting local value long before construction begins.
The conversation explores why workforce development, community partnerships, and public policy have become essential parts of infrastructure delivery, and why attracting the right talent means looking beyond technical expertise alone. From skilled trades to public affairs, Tony explains why people remain at the heart of every successful project.
This episode offers a fresh perspective on one of the industry's biggest challenges: as digital infrastructure scales at pace, how do we ensure the communities hosting it grow alongside it?
01:34 - Introduction to Tony
02:55 - What’s been the common thread behind your career decisions?
03:50 - After working at some of the world’s largest hyperscalers, what motivated you to join a much smaller, earlier-stage platform?
04:46 - You often speak about community trust and long-term impact - where does that personal commitment come from?
07:19 - Beale takes a community-first approach - what's changed that makes early community engagement so essential?
09:30 - Do you see the wider industry adopting this community-first approach, or is it still slow to change?
10:28 - From your perspective, what are the biggest talent bottlenecks in the industry today?
13:19 - Are the workforce bottlenecks you first saw at AWS now emerging at a much larger scale across digital infrastructure?
15:00 - Is workforce strategy now just as important as power and land strategy in data centre development?
16:40 - From your experience, what type of person thrives in a smaller, high-impact environment, and what does it take to succeed?
18:45 - How do you build a strong culture in a smaller, distributed team?
21:30 - Do you think people today are increasingly looking for impact and autonomy in their work?
24:13 - Do you think the traditional hyperscale playbook still works, or are we entering a new era of infrastructure development?
23:55 - Do you think the companies that succeed over the next decade will be those that engage communities best?
26:55 - Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of the industry?
Connect with your hosts, Jenny Gladman and Chloe England, on LinkedIn.
Find your guest, Tony Burkart, on LinkedIn.
Thanks for listening to Conversations in Cleantech brought to you by Brightsmith.
This is a Loaded Hype production.
