Former Equinix, ODATA, and Scala executive joins Elea as the company accelerates hyperscale and AI growth across Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 2026 — Elea Data Centers, a leading distributed and sustainable data center platform in Brazil, today announced the appointment of Thiago Pongelupe as Technical Sales Director.
The appointment reflects Elea’s continued investment in senior technical leadership as the company accelerates its AI and hyperscale expansion strategy across Brazil.
Pongelupe will lead the integration of technical projects, commercial solutions, pricing strategy, partner relationships, and expansion initiatives to support Elea’s next phase of growth. His role will help ensure that Elea’s infrastructure platform continues to meet the evolving demands of high-density AI environments, global hyperscalers, and large enterprise customers.
A 15-year veteran of the data center industry, Pongelupe previously held leadership roles at Equinix, ODATA, and Scala Data Centers. Throughout his career, he has developed and delivered major infrastructure projects for hyperscalers and large enterprises across multiple markets. Pongelupe is a Certified Data Centre Specialist® (CDCS), accredited by the Uptime Institute, and holds an MBA in Innovation Management from BSP – Business School São Paulo.
Reporting directly to President Alessandro Lombardi, Pongelupe will help align technical execution with Elea’s long-term expansion strategy. “Thiago combines deep technical expertise with strong commercial execution and a clear understanding of hyperscale infrastructure requirements,” said Lombardi. “As AI workloads continue to reshape the industry, his experience will help Elea scale with the technical sophistication and operational discipline required by global customers.”
“I chose Elea because its vision firmly establishes Brazil as a pivotal hub for next-generation technology,” said Pongelupe. “The management team is world-class, and the company has both the long-term vision and execution capability required to lead the next wave of digital infrastructure growth. With significant institutional backing and an aggressive expansion roadmap, Elea is building exactly where the market is headed.”
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Elea Data Centers is Latin America’s leading distributed and sustainable data center platform, focused on accelerating the development of AI-ready digital infrastructure across Brazil. Powered by 100% renewable energy, Elea operates a nationwide network of nine interconnected data center campuses strategically located in the country’s most critical markets. The company is also the developer of Rio AI City, a large-scale AI infrastructure initiative designed to support next-generation compute and cloud deployments. By combining local market expertise with scalable, high-performance infrastructure, Elea enables global and regional customers to expand securely and efficiently across Latin America.
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