Gilbert M. “Gil” Bareng is the founder and chief executive officer of Bareng Corporation, a real estate investment and development company focused on building infrastructure for human potential. With more than two decades of experience in architecture, public-school facilities, planning and community-centered development, he connects land, housing, education, workforce, finance, culture and community needs into integrated development strategies. His work emphasizes relationship-based, long-horizon projects that create value beyond the property itself and strengthen local opportunity.

Scott Collins serves as assistant city manager for the city of San Luis Obispo. He oversees the city’s community services group, including the Community development, Parks and Recreation, Public Works and Utilities departments. Before joining the city in December 2024, Collins was executive director of the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo and previously served for five years as city manager of Morro Bay. He brings extensive experience in local-government administration, housing, infrastructure, land-use implementation and coordination across public agencies and community partners.

Jeremy Cook works at the intersection of sustainable infrastructure, energy systems and data-center development. Over more than 15 years, he has worked across renewable energy, carbon capture, distributed energy-resource management, virtual power plants, energy-market forecasting, data centers and water and wastewater infrastructure. He has prior leadership roles at Noya, GridBeyond and ENGIE Impact, where he established a renewable-energy advisory practice. He brings a practical perspective on turning land into infrastructure-ready platforms and coordinating landowners, utilities, developers, regulators and communities.

Brett Earnest is Suffolk Construction’s general manager for mission critical and advanced manufacturing. He brings more than two decades of construction and operational leadership to complex, schedule-intensive projects. Before joining Suffolk, he led major teams and project portfolios in the Pacific Northwest, including aviation, convention-center and healthcare work. At Suffolk, he focuses on the delivery of missioncritical and advanced-manufacturing facilities, combining construction execution, client relationships, trade-partner coordination, safety and technology. His perspective is especially relevant to the cost, schedule, labor and constructability challenges of data-center development.

Thomas Fowler IV is a professor of architecture and Director of the Design Collaboratory at Cal Poly. A licensed architect and Fellow of the AIA, he has spent more than three decades advancing interdisciplinary, technology-enabled architectural education. His work integrates design, building technology, constructability, and collaboration across architecture, engineering, construction, business, and community partners. Fowler has led complex high-rise, design-build, and community-serving studios and has received major honors including the CSU Wang Family Excellence Award, Cal Poly Distinguished Teaching Award, and ACSA Distinguished Professor recognition.

Erica Garaffo is a public sector innovator focused on building resilient, sustainable cities through technology and data-driven infrastructure planning. At the City of San José, she leads strategies integrating energy and utility systems with economic development, advancing civic partnerships that unlock innovation and investment. With a background in Industrial Engineering and a Master’s in Public Policy from Cal Poly SLO, Erica brings a systems-thinking approach to complex urban challenges—bridging technical analysis with policy design. A San José native, she is passionate about co-creating solutions that leave her community stronger and more connected for future generations.

Hamed Ghoddusi is director of the Cal Poly Real Estate Initiative and a finance professor at Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business. His research spans housing, natural resource economics, technology and risk management. Before entering academia, he worked as a management consultant, model builder and analyst with national and international organizations across three continents. He brings a cross-disciplinary, data-driven perspective to land-use and local economic development challenges and teaches courses in housing development finance and advanced analytics.

Russ Levanway is chief financial officer of REACH Central Coast, where he leads financial strategy, budgeting, contracting, board-committee work and organizational sustainability. Before joining REACH, he founded and scaled a nationally recognized information-technology firm and developed a record as a trusted business adviser. At REACH, he helps translate regional economic-development ambitions into disciplined financial and operating plans. He brings a Central Coast perspective on investment attraction, infrastructure readiness, workforce development and the long-term regional value that major technology and energy projects can create.

John Miranda is a lecturer in Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business and a research fellow with Nemertes. He retired from Intel in late 2025 after more than three decades, most recently serving as a senior director in the Corporate Strategy Office. His work has spanned corporate foresight, competitive strategy, data-center and AI markets, software transformation and sustainability. Miranda now teaches client consulting at Cal Poly and brings a technology-industry perspective grounded in strategy, energy efficiency and data center systems.

Dawn Ortiz-Legg represents District 3 on the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors. The board’s responsibilities include land use, natural resource stewardship, economic development, public safety, social services and public health. Before elected office, Ortiz-Legg built a career in energy infrastructure and efficiency and spent almost a decade overseeing electric transmission and distribution maintenance. She holds a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins SAIS and brings a distinctive combination of local governance, land-use and energyinfrastructure experience.

Andy Pollin is a real estate executive and educator with more than 25 years of experience in real estate investment, finance, development, and construction. He teaches real property development at Cal Poly and the University of San Diego, bringing a practitioner’s perspective to project feasibility, capital structure, entitlement risk, and delivery. As Master of Ceremonies, he will guide the program and connect the day’s discussions across panels.

Nick Prescott has more than two decades of experience in commercial-property markets. He brings a market-oriented perspective to data center development, including the commercial judgment required to evaluate sites, structure opportunities, assemble partners and move emerging infrastructure projects toward execution.

Julia Rogers, MRED, is Real Estate Development Manager for the California State University Office of the Chancellor, where she supports development partnerships and real-property initiatives across the CSU system. Her work includes evaluating campus development opportunities, engaging developers and investors, structuring public-private partnerships, and helping align real estate strategy with university priorities. She is a licensed California real estate broker and holds a Master in Real Estate Development from IE University. Her perspective connects campus land and facilities, financial feasibility, sustainability, and community-serving development.

Victor Sim is Managing Member of Value-Add HS, LLC, where he advises artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, and data center companies on hyperscale growth strategies, strategic partnerships, capital creation, and commercialization. He currently advises AtomBeam, a Persistent Cognitive Machine AI company focused on persistent memory and consistent learning; Energration, an ontology and agentic AI platform for enterprise intelligence and automation; and ACA, which advances next-generation AI infrastructure technologies. Previously, he was a corporate securities partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (now Dentons) and Squire Sanders & Dempsey (now Squire Patton Boggs), advising public and private companies on complex securities, financing, and corporate matters. He is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Emory University School of Law.

Wil Smith is CEO, President, and Founder of Greenlaw Partners, a California-based real estate development and operating company with a large portfolio of acquisitions, dispositions, and development activity. He brings a developer's perspective on entitlement risk, project execution, capital discipline, and the difference between theoretically possible projects and projects that can actually be delivered.

Marc Swackhamer is Dean of Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. His work and leadership connect architectural education, design research, digital fabrication, sustainability, and environmentally responsive design. Through his collaborative research practice, he has explored interdisciplinary design, material experimentation, and the relationship between biology and architecture. His opening remarks will frame the day’s data-center discussions within Cal Poly’s broader built-environment mission.

Karen Houston Tillman leads economicdevelopment and entrepreneurship initiatives at Cal Poly, serving as associate executive director of economic development and advisor to the president. She brings nearly three decades of technology-sector leadership, including senior communications roles at Oracle, Cisco, GoDaddy, and Brex. Her experience spans global communications, crisis management, corporate strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship. At Cal Poly, she connects university capabilities with regional priorities in technology, energy, aerospace, workforce development and community-centered economic growth.