About Us

Built by people who've run the infrastructure

Apex Foundry was founded by operators, engineers, and capital structurers who spent decades inside the cloud giants — and decided there was a better way to bring enterprise AI to scale.

Our Story

Why Apex Foundry exists

The AI infrastructure market is broken. Enterprises need serious compute capacity — but the options available to them are either hyperscaler cloud at punishing margins, or NeoCloud providers built for startups, not regulated enterprises.

Our founders have sat on both sides of that table. As former AWS, IBM, Nokia, and Shell executives, we've built the infrastructure, closed the deals, and seen firsthand where the system fails enterprise customers.

Apex Foundry is our answer: a disciplined investment and deployment platform that brings sovereign AI compute directly to enterprise facilities — purpose-built, capital-efficient, and governed end-to-end.

Our Vision

A world where every serious enterprise runs AI on infrastructure it controls — close to its data, compliant by design, and economically superior to the cloud alternatives.

Our Mission

To design, finance, and operate 200+ sovereign AI nodes globally — each one a profitable, insurable, institutional-grade infrastructure asset that serves enterprise AI workloads at half the cost of NeoCloud.

Our Edge

We are not a vendor. We are a design authority, capital orchestrator, and governance layer. We bring together sites, finance partners, OEMs, and system integrators under a single disciplined platform — and we make the enterprise the winner.

Combined pedigree that matters in this market

AWS

IBM

Shell

Nokia

DrFirst

Flexnode

11Stream

AKULAR

Leadership

Core Founding Team

A globally experienced leadership group with decades of experience at AWS, IBM, Nokia, EY, Shell, and leading infrastructure vendors.

Guido Bartels

President & CEO

AWS · IBM

Global cloud and energy executive with 35+ years scaling high-growth technology businesses. Former AWS MD and IBM GM leading billion-dollar expansions, hyperscale region launches, and strategic alliances. Advises enterprises on AI infrastructure, cloud transformation, and resilient, sustainable data-center strategy.

Martin Rapos

Co-CEO / COO

Shell · IBM · AKULAR

AI data-center builder and AKULAR co-founder with two decades in digital twins, liquid-cooled compute design, and operational telemetry. Builds modular, high-density micro-data-center networks optimized for enterprise AI workloads. Bridges 3D spatial intelligence with real-world infrastructure.

Eric Ashman

CTO

Flexnode · Nokia · DrFirst

Senior systems engineer with 30 years designing and operating mission-critical compute environments. Expert in GPU clusters, distributed storage, Linux system administration, and automation. Aligns engineering strategy with operational reliability, scaling complex workloads from prototype to production.

Roy Timor-Rousso

CMO / BD EMEA & APAC

Flexnode · 11Stream

Global technology and business leader specializing in modular data centers, sovereign cloud, and AI infrastructure. Drives multimillion-dollar initiatives across government and hyperscale sectors. Leads Sovereign Cloud & AI at 11Stream and global BD at Flexnode.

Taco de Vries

CRO / BD Americas

EY · IBM

Energy-tech strategist with 25+ years modernizing distribution grids for electrification and data-center growth. Specializes in grid-edge forecasting, DER valuation, and advanced analytics. Led major eMobility and smart-grid programs across North America, Europe, and LATAM.

Technology Partner

AKULAR Digital Twin Team

AKULAR provides the digital twin backbone — enabling real-time 3D visibility of every rack, node, and facility before, during, and after deployment. Customers see exactly what we see, from day one.