Nationally Recognized Las Vegas City Manager To Implement Vision For The World’s Most Advanced Smart City Ecosystem
LAS VEGAS—Switch, the technology infrastructure ecosystem company that is powering the future of the connected world, announced today that Las Vegas City Manager, Betsy Fretwell, will be joining the company in July of this year as Senior Vice President of Switch SMART.
In this new capacity, Fretwell will drive the strategic development, implementation and national expansion of Switch’s vision to integrate all aspects of smart city development utilizing its world renowned shared infrastructure platform.
For more than 16 years, Switch founder and CEO Rob Roy has developed the world’s largest technology ecosystem with a vision of fully integrating the infrastructure and analytics needed to run a truly smart city. Switch SMART is the infrastructure for all smart city elements to communicate, integrate and operate within a co-location ecosystem platform. The company is planning a full roll-out of Switch SMART later this year.
Throughout her career, Fretwell has focused on utilizing technology and innovation to create better cities, better quality of life, better standards of service delivery, and improved sustainability. She has driven a collaborative vision and public policy framework that weaves together the critical infrastructure that has moved Las Vegas and the southern Nevada community forward. During her tenure, the City of Las Vegas has invested significantly in connected infrastructure to create an urban center testing area for autonomous and connected vehicles and recently tested the first driverless shuttle in the downtown core. Under her leadership, the City also moved to 100-percent renewable energy, a value shared with Switch.
“Betsy is a nationally recognized leader who has successfully brought together the strengths of both the public and private sector to achieve great strides in innovation and technology at the City of Las Vegas,” said Switch Executive Vice President Kristi Overgaard. “Betsy will bring her unique experience managing the renowned City of Las Vegas for the last eight years to drive innovation and technology integration for cities, not only in Nevada, but across the country.”
Fretwell brings to Switch and its customers a deep knowledge of the operations, challenges and needs of local governments, coupled with a unique understanding of how advanced technologies and powerful data analytics work together to create cities that will shape the future.
“I am thrilled to be joining Switch, a company I believe is changing the world through the vision of Rob Roy,” Fretwell said. “To be able to harness the power of connected technology and big data within the Switch ecosystem to enable cities, agencies, and businesses to be truly smart and create a sustainable quality of life in our communities is the fulfillment of my life-long passion.”
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman praised Fretwell’s work at the City and the impact it will continue to have in her new role at Switch.
“Betsy has made an invaluable contribution to the City of Las Vegas and our efforts to become one of the most connected cities in the nation,” said Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman. “Our organization is proud of her and grateful for her leadership. Since 2000, Switch has been on the cutting edge of innovation and Betsy has more than embraced innovations in making our city better. Her work at Switch will be a perfect fit.”
About Switch SMART®
Switch is the independent leader in exascale data center ecosystems, edge data center designs, industry-leading telecommunications solutions and next-generation technology innovation. Switch Founder and CEO Rob Roy developed over 700 issued and pending patent claims covering data center designs that have manifested into the company’s world-renowned data centers and technology solutions.
We innovate to sustainably progress the digital foundation of the connected world with a focus on enterprise-class and emerging hybrid cloud solutions. The Switch PRIMES, located in Las Vegas and Tahoe Reno, Nevada; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; and Austin, Texas are the world’s most powerful exascale data center campus ecosystems with low latency to major U.S. markets. Visit switch.com for more information and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.