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Cory Notaro is a Director at Thermo Systems, a leader in control systems integration that specializes in BMS/EPMS solutions within the mission critical space. Cory provides leadership for the company’s growth within the industry by overseeing mission critical preconstruction and sales at Thermo Systems.
With a passion for helping clients by providing innovative solutions, Cory focused his career on preconstruction services and early conceptual design. With nearly 12 years of experience, he has quickly become an expert in the preconstruction process for mission critical applications, including critical HVAC (BAS/EPMS), central plants, cogeneration, and microgrid control systems. Cory has been instrumental in establishing Thermo Systems’ mission critical practice serving hyperscale, enterprise, and colocation clients throughout North America.
Career Path to the Mission Critical Industry
After receiving his degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware in 2010, Cory began his career at Thermo Systems as a control systems engineer. He initially focused on district energy and life sciences projects on the east coast, including fieldwork at a LEED gold building at a life sciences customer in support of installation and commissioning activities. Cory then moved to the west coast, where he served as the project manager overseeing two teams deploying solvent extraction projects at California’s Mountain Pass mine. During the early stages of his career, Cory quickly developed a solid technical background spanning multiple industries.
In 2013, Cory transitioned to the business development team, where he quickly combined his technical experience with his passion for providing the best automation solutions to support customers globally. In 2015, Cory developed a strong interest in the mission critical industry while growing Thermo’s west coast customer base. During this time, he grew into a leadership position as Business Development Manager and focused on mission critical hyperscale efforts. Cory recognized the increasing need for modularization and offsite prefabrication to left shift construction schedules and to reduce onsite labor for data center clients. Motivated to deliver for his customers, he sets a priority on identifying mechanical, electrical, and factory testing techniques to keep peak labor onsite as low as possible while keeping quality and repeatability offsite as high as possible. Innovation in developing more efficient and safe installation methods will expedite the delivery of the IT capacity that data center end users need as soon as possible.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Preconstruction and Sales Engineers
In his current role as a senior leader of mission critical programs, Cory has developed and trained a team of systems engineers in data center integrated solution design, addressing power, cooling, racks, and monitoring as an integrated discipline. Cory’s experience and passion for learning have made him a subject matter expert in the mission critical space and an ideal mentor for future engineering leaders in the field. When asked for the driving force behind his team’s motivation, Cory responded, “Mission critical new construction and renovation projects are creating the infrastructure necessary to prepare for the next evolution of our day-to-day lives. The technology and software applications that we, our children, and our children’s children will use effortlessly will be powered by the construction we are doing today. We embrace this opportunity to be a part of the next phase of this technological revolution.”
Cory takes his role in leading young engineers seriously. “Start by developing a good basic understanding of typical mission-critical areas and subsystems,” Cory advises new engineers. “Mission critical projects will have administrative/facility support areas for onsite operations and end-user staff, data hall/server floors, utility distribution, and other mechanical and electrical areas. Become familiar with common data center areas and the systems that support them. This baseline knowledge will allow deeper dives into complex systems and critical areas for construction timelines.”
Involvement with 7×24 Exchange
Though Cory is a relatively new member of 7×24 Exchange, he has attended multiple conferences and sees tremendous value in the organization. He recognizes the need for global collaboration and believes 7×24 Exchange provides the perfect platform to exchange ideas and learn from other leaders in the industry that are seeking to address the challenges of data center design, delivery, operation, and sustainability.
Cory’s first experience with 7×24 Exchange was attending the Spring Conference in 2019 as a sponsor for the event, where he could easily envision the value 7×24 brings to the mission critical industry and the need to provide a space where leaders and experts can exchange knowledge.
-Cory Notaro
