About L5 Mission Critical
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Who We Are
L5 Mission Critical is not a division or business line, it's a standalone company built with a singular focus: operating mission critical facilities. Privately owned and backed by Walbridge, a Tier 1 hyperscale construction enterprise, L5 was launched to take data centers from build to run. The company converts decades of construction expertise into a recurring operations business, purpose-built to deliver data center critical operations management nationwide. For owners and operators, that means one partner who understands the facility from the ground up, not a new team learning it after the fact.
An Integrated Model
L5 completes the data center lifecycle. By combining Walbridge's design and construction knowledge with L5 Mission Critical's operations expertise, L5 delivers a single, coordinated critical operations management solution. This approach, carrying the same team and documentation from construction into operations.
Built on 30+ Years of Facilities Management
For more than 30 years, Walbridge affiliated entities have offered facilities management services, including decades of self-performed industrial facilities management in environments where a single failure stops a production line. That operating discipline, standard work, rigorous documentation and a safety-first culture, transfers directly to mission-critical environments, where human error remains a leading cause of outages.
Strength of an Established Enterprise
Drawing on Walbridge's resources, supply chain partnerships and industry relationships to deliver at scale. Clients benefit from established vendor networks, purchasing power, self-perform capabilities and a national footprint, combined with the responsiveness and focus of a dedicated critical operations team.
Our Approach to Operations
We staff facilities with trained critical environments technicians, supported by documented procedures, change management controls and a culture of operational discipline. Before a facility goes live, our proprietary database of thousands of documented equipment failures shapes our spares strategy, testing rigor and vendor management — reducing risk from day one.
Investing in the Workforce Behind the Industry
The data center industry's growth is constrained as much by workforce capacity as by power and infrastructure. L5 is developing a data center workforce training curriculum built to create clear, accelerated pathways for skilled tradespeople, helping address the technician shortage the industry faces while opening new career paths in the trades.
Leadership
Leading L5 Mission Critical
Matt Landek leads L5 Mission Critical with nearly two decades of experience in facilities management, data center and critical environments operations. He most recently served as Global President of JLL's Data Center Division, where he led a platform operating 340 data centers with a workforce of more than 2,500 employees globally. At L5 Mission Critical, he is building the operating model behind Build to Operate, carrying the people, documentation and institutional knowledge from construction directly into day-one operations. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also holds a Facilities Management Professional designation (FMP) from the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA).
Joseph DeBlois joins L5 Mission Critical as VP, Integrated Services, bringing over 20 years of experience in corporate real estate and data centers to the firm. He most recently served as Chief Operating Officer of SKAE, a JLL company specializing in end-to-end data center project management and commissioning services. In that role, he also partnered with numerous data center companies to help transform their operational delivery into a best-in-class model.
Katie Fisher is the VP, Head of Marketing at L5 Mission Critical, where she leads brand, positioning and go-to-market strategy as the company launches its critical operations platform. She brings 22 years of marketing leadership across commercial real estate and financial services, spanning go-to-market strategy, demand generation and portfolio marketing. She most recently led field marketing at Acrisure, building the North America Insurance field marketing function from the ground up. Before that, she spent 18 years at JLL, rising to Executive Director, Americas Work Dynamics and Global Industries Marketing, where she developed the firm's first go-to-market marketing strategy for data centers and built and scaled the marketing strategy behind the firm's largest global accounts. Katie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marquette University.
Sarah McManus leads vendor strategy, sourcing and strategic partnerships supporting the company's growing mission-critical platform. She brings experience across data center procurement, operations and business strategy, with a focus on building scalable vendor ecosystems, governance frameworks and operating models that connect procurement to broader business objectives. She most recently led Procurement Strategy & Operations at T5 Data Centers, now EverOn Data Center Services, supporting procurement across construction, critical operations and enterprise functions. Before entering the private sector, Sarah served more than 20 years on active duty in the U.S. military, bringing a leadership approach grounded in disciplined execution, organizational resilience and developing high-performing teams.
Paul Stupka joins L5 Mission Critical as VP, Project Management, with more than 25 years of construction management experience, including 15+ years in data center construction. Previously with Clune Construction Company, Paul is known as a trusted and innovative leader, delivering critical facility projects. He specializes in the strategic planning and execution of projects within operational facilities, with a passion for protecting quality, safety, and uptime. Paul has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Marquette University.
Advisory Board
John Rakolta III is President and Chief Administrative Officer of Walbridge, where his 17-year tenure has spanned business development, finance and executive leadership. He led Walbridge's entry into the hyperscale data center sector and built the company's Real Estate Services division. John holds a B.S. in Building Construction Management from Purdue University and an M.S. in Real Estate Finance and Investment from NYU, and is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Executive Leadership Development program.
Dave Robson is the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Walbridge, where his more than two decades of tenure have spanned business development, market expansion and executive leadership. He built the pursuit model that synchronizes sales, marketing, engineering and operations across the firm, and has led Walbridge's mission critical business since its 2016 launch, securing more than 6 gigawatts of data center construction contracts with global technology clients. Dave is a graduate of St. Clair College and Harvard Business School's Executive Education Program.