Irish company opens global HQ in Northern Virginia, hiring for 100 jobs
Just days from St. Patrick's Day, an Irish company is making its mark on Northern Virginia.
Hanley Energy unveiled its global headquarters on Friday, a 40,000-square-foot facility in Ashburn in the heart of data center alley.
The company is not a data center itself - rather, it provides the energy and power management for data centers and technology such as Amazon Web Services.
Irish company opens global HQ in Northern Virginia, hiring for 100 jobs
The move brings 100 jobs to Loudon County, with Hanley executives telling FOX 5 they are seeking highly-skilled professionals and hiring for positions including engineers, electricians, finance, and more.
"The data center sector in Northern Virginia is no secret, and it was important for us to be close to our customers in data center alley," said Niall Franklin, U.S. country manager for Hanley.
While the economic impact of data centers is clear, they have been controversial in Loudon County these past few years.
FOX 5 has reported extensively on protests and rallies from homeowners in these communities, concerned about their home values and quality of life.
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Residents and conservationists against bringing data centers to Prince William County are revealing their next steps to stop the controversial development from moving forward.
But Hanley executives and Irish economic development officials say this won't be the same.
Irish company opens global HQ in Northern Virginia, hiring for 100 jobs
"This is the opposite actually, this is good news. So lots of people object to data centers because they're big and there aren't a lot of people directly employed. These are the people who build them and the center in Loudon County that Hanley Energy has established is hiring people to do business across the United States," said Leo Clancy, chief executive of Enterprise Ireland. "So in this case, it's the business of building data centers. Not just for Loudon County but the entire country."
And despite tech jobs being slashed nationally over the last year, the forecast for data center growth is trending up.