Iron Mountain (company)

Background

The company was started by Herman Knaust, who had made his fortune growing and marketing mushrooms. He purchased a depleted iron ore mine and 100 acres (0.40 km²) of land in Livingston, New York for $9,000 in 1936, needing more space to grow his product. By 1950, the mushroom market had shifted, and Knaust was looking for alternative uses for his mine, which he had named "Iron Mountain."

Founding and early years (1951–1970)

Knaust saw a business opportunity, amidst widespread Cold War fears, in protecting corporate information from nuclear attack and other disasters.

The company was originally known as "Iron Mountain Atomic Storage Corporation;" it opened its first underground "vaults" in 1951 and its first sales office in the Empire State Building, about 125 miles (201 km) south. Iron Mountain's first customer was East River Savings Bank, who brought microfilm copies of deposit records and duplicate signature cards in armored cars for storage in the mountain facility. In 1978, the company opened its first above-ground records-storage facility.

Middle years (1970–2000)

This first iteration of Iron Mountain was bankrupt by the early 1970s and was wholly acquired by Vincent J. Ryan through his holdings in Schooner Capital Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts. At the time, it consisted of the original facility in Livingston, New York and IMAR (Iron Mountain at Rosendale), a former limestone mine and mushroom cave outside of Kingston, New York. In 1980, it expanded to Rhode Island through the purchase of a former Industrial National Bank (a precursor to FleetBoston) cold site and data tape repository in Glocester, Rhode Island. It had many Fortune 500 clients at the time, and its revenue was in the $6 million range in the early 1980s.

Its breakthrough came in the mid-1980s when it convinced Manufacturer's Hanover Bank to move all its paper records out of Manhattan to an above-ground facility, a former strip mall in Port Ewen, New York. This was the first time that bar codes were used by a records management company to allow real time access to shipped boxes and the documents inside.

During the 1980s, the company expanded beyond New York, opening facilities in New Jersey and throughout New England. In 1988, Iron Mountain extended its reach into 12 more U.S. markets by acquiring Bell & Howell Records Management, Inc.

The firm went public on January 31, 1996. In 1997, Iron Mountain became a leading software escrow company with the acquisition of Data Securities International (DSI).

Expansion and consolidation (2000–present)

Since 1980, Iron Mountain grew through acquisitions. Revenue over this period increased from $3 million in 1981 to $2.7 billion at the end of 2007.

In February 2000, Iron Mountain Incorporated announced the completion of its acquisition of Pierce Leahy Corp. (NYSE:PLH) in a stock-for-stock merger valued at approximately $1.1 billion.

In 2004, Iron Mountain formed a digital assets division called "Iron Mountain Digital", following the acquisition of Connected Corporation, a maker of online PC backup software. A year later, Iron Mountain Digital bought LiveVault, a provider of online backup software for server data. In 2007 Iron Mountain acquired Stratify Inc., one of the larger e-discovery service providers at the production end of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). The acquired businesses of LiveVault and Stratify Inc. were consolidated into Iron Mountain Digital.

Richard Reese became the company's CEO in 1981, and he concurrently assumed the position of chairman in 1995. He remained in the former position until June 2008, when he was replaced by Bob Brennan, but he remained in the chairman's seat. However, the company announced Brennan's departure in April 2011, and Reese resumed his former title.

In February 2010, Iron Mountain acquired a California-based eDiscovery and content archiving software provider, Mimosa Systems. The acquisition too was absorbed into Iron Mountain Digital.

On May 16, 2011, Iron Mountain decided to divest Iron Mountain Digital, which was acquired by the British enterprise search and knowledge management firm Autonomy corporation for $380 million. Shortly thereafter, in August 2011, Hewlett-Packard acquired the Cambridge based Autonomy, and amalgamated the operations of Autonomy (which included Iron Mountain Digital) into HP's enterprise software division.

On May 8, 2012, Iron Mountain expanded its high-security storage facility business through the acquisition of three records storage firms—File House Offsite Record Storage in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Document Systems Inc. in Columbia, South Carolina and First National Safe Deposit in Philadelphia.

On November 5, 2013, Iron Mountain announced it would be shutting down its Saint John, New Brunswick contact center in 2014. Many of the jobs were transitioned to Convergys.

As of January 1, 2014, Iron Mountain successfully converted to a real estate investment trust after approval of private letter ruling requests by the IRS to classify steel racking structures as qualified real estate assets.

At the end of April 2015, Iron Mountain announced it would acquire Australian data protection services provider Recall Holdings for around $2.2 billion in cash and stock. At the end of March 2016 the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission released a statement saying it would not block the acquisition of Recall pursuant to Iron Mountain's agreement to divest most of its Australian business. At the same time, the Canadian Competition Bureau announced it entered an agreement with Iron Mountain to allow the acquisition as long as Iron Mountain divested records management assets in the markets in which it found the acquisition would limit effective remaining competitors: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The US Department of Justice also agreed to allow the acquisition provided Iron Mountain divested records management assets in the 15 markets where Iron Mountain and Recall were two of the top three competitors – these markets include Detroit; Kansas City, Missouri; Charlotte, North Carolina; Durham, North Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina; Buffalo, New York; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Pittsburgh; Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; San Antonio, Texas; Richmond, Virginia; San Diego; Atlanta; and Seattle. Finally, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority approved the acquisition pending an investigation into the acquisition's effect on competition in the UK. In June 2016, the Competition and Markets Authority determined the acquisition would create a "substantial lessening of competition" in Aberdeen and Dundee. In response to this report, Iron Mountain and the Competition and Markets Authority reached an agreement whereby Iron Mountain would sell Recall's existing operations in Aberdeen and Dundee (known as C21 Data Services). On May 2, 2016 Iron Mountain announced the completion of the merger for $2 billion (US), mostly in stock.

In 2016 Fortune magazine listed Iron Mountain at number 729 on its list of the largest 1000 public companies in the United States.

William Meaney, President & CEO

William Meaney is president and CEO of Iron Mountain and serves as a director on the company’s board. He previously served as CEO of The Zuellig Group, a $12 billion primarily business-to-business conglomerate based in Hong Kong that saw sales triple during his tenure from August 2004-March 2012.

Prior to leading The Zuellig Group, Meaney spent a number of years in the airline industry, serving as the chief commercial officer and managing director of publicly-traded Swiss International Airlines from December 2002 to January 2004 and executive vice president of South African Airways from 1998 to 2001.

Earlier in his career, Meaney served as: the acting CEO of South African Vaccine Producers; the founder and managing director of Genhro Management Consultancy; and a principal of Strategic Planning Associates, now part of Oliver Wyman. Meaney’s first career was as a CIA operations officer.

He is a member of the Asia Business Council, and he holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University.

He is a trustee of both schools and serves on the board of Qantas Airways Limited.

Stuart Brown, Executive Vice President & CFO

As Iron Mountain’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, Stuart Brown has overall responsibility for accounting, external reporting, financial planning and analysis, internal audit, investor relations, tax and treasury functions. He has served as Iron Mountain’s CFO since June 25, 2016.

Prior to joining Iron Mountain, Brown held various roles at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., where most recently he served as the company’s CFO from 2011 – 2016. From 2006 to 2011, Brown was CFO for DCT Industrial Trust Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT) with $2.6 billion of industrial assets located in the United States and Mexico. Additionally, Brown served as chief accounting officer for Federal Realty Investment Trust from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that time, he held a variety of positions with Royal Ahold, including roles in corporate controlling and investor relations in The Netherlands, as well as corporate accounting and controller roles for Ahold’s U.S. companies, Stop & Shop and Giant Food, Inc. Earlier in his career, he spent five years in public accounting with Deloitte. He has more than 20 years of leadership in corporate finance has extensive experience in public company finance including capital markets, treasury, financial planning and analysis, financial reporting and investor relations, as well as working closely with operations teams to strengthen performance. He holds a master of accountancy and a bachelor of business administration degree both from the University of Georgia. He is a certified public accountant.

Tasos Tsolakis, Executive Vice President, Global Services & CIO

As Iron Mountain’s Executive Vice President, Global Services and Chief Information Officer, Tasos Tsolakis lead Iron Mountain’s Global Service Organization, which includes IT, Security and Procurement. As leader of the Global Service Organization, Tasos is focused on strengthening Iron Mountain’s internal services by working strategically with teams across the globe to manage risk and create a consistent standard of superior service to our internal and external customers. Tasos joined Iron Mountain in September 2010 as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer to oversee the company’s adoption and deployment of information technology. Prior to joining Iron Mountain, Tasos was the CIO at Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a Xerox Company, where he set IT strategy for all internal and external-facing technology. Before ACS, Tasos worked for Home Depot as its Vice President of Direct to Consumer Solutions and IT shared services. He has also held key technology leadership positions at GE Information Services and AT&T. Tasos has served on numerous IT boards and development committees, including the Mass Technology Leadership Council, and is a recognized speaker on business process, product development and customer-service technology. He holds an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School; a Ph.D. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Wilkes University.

Marc Duale, President, International

Marc Duale was appointed president, international in September 2008, after overseeing Iron Mountain’s business in Europe for two years. A French native, Duale joined Iron Mountain in May 2006 with more than 25 years of international leadership experience. Prior to Iron Mountain, Duale was the managing director of Reuter's Asia Pacific operations. Before Reuters, Duale served as COO of DHL Worldwide Express' Asia-Pacific and Middle East business, with responsibilities spanning more than 50 countries. He was previously director of DHL's business in Western Europe and North Africa. Duale also brings operational experience in high volume, service-based businesses. At American Express, Duale served in many capacities—in both New York and Paris—including vice president of strategic planning, vice president of marketing and sales and general manager for corporate cards and travel services. He also spent several years as a business management consultant and project manager for The Boston Consulting Group. Duale's academic achievements include an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ernest W. Cloutier, Executive Vice President, U.S. Federal, Security and Legal

Ernest Cloutier leads Iron Mountain’s U.S. federal business as well as the global security and legal organizations of the company. As head of the company’s U.S. federal business, Cloutier is responsible for ensuring the federal business meets the information management needs of governmental agencies and other public sector customers. In addition, Cloutier oversees the company’s security organization, including corporate security, safety and risk management. Cloutier also acts as the company’s general counsel and secretary with responsibility for privacy and compliance, commercial contracts, mergers & acquisitions, litigation, intellectual property, real estate, securities, government affairs and corporate governance. Prior to joining Iron Mountain in December 2007, Cloutier served as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Digitas Inc., a NASDAQ listed digital marketing and technology services company. Earlier in his career, Cloutier practiced corporate and securities law with the law firms Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston and Dechert LLP in Philadelphia. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Bates College and a juris doctor from The American University Washington College of Law.

Jack A. Faer, Chief Risk & Security Officer

Jack Faer leads Iron Mountain’s global safety, risk and security team and is responsible for all aspects of corporate security and safety, risk management, fraud prevention, information security and crisis management and programs as well as the vital security interests of the company’s customers. He joined Iron Mountain from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), where he served as senior vice president of operational risk management. Prior to joining SSgA, Faer was with Fidelity Investments for 17 years, serving in a variety of leadership roles, including senior vice president and chief security officer and senior vice president of risk & compliance for the retirement and outsourcing business. He has also held audit and consulting roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche, and is a former special agent with the FBI. Faer is a certified public accountant and holds an MBA from Pace University and a Bachelor of Science from the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. He sits on the Executive, Audit (chair), and Nominating & Governance Committees of the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Association. He resides in the Boston area.

John “JT” Tomovcsik, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Records and Information Management, North America

John Tomovcsik (JT) is our Executive Vice President and General Manager for Records and Information Management in North America. JT focuses on long-term strategy and planning for the business unit and has direct P&L responsibility. His organization also includes Iron Mountain’s Secure Shredding services and the Document Management Solutions business, which extends Iron Mountain’s core capabilities of document imaging and business process outsourcing to our customers. Previously, JT served as North American Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he was directly responsible for the operations and execution of all core business lines and drove operational performance through a continuous improvement model. Prior to becoming COO, JT held Executive Vice President roles in three former Iron Mountain business units. He joined the company in 1999 through the acquisition of Data Base, Inc., a data protection and management company, where he spent thirteen years serving as the Operating Executive. JT resides in the Philadelphia area.

Ted MacLean, CMO

Chief Marketing Officer Ted MacLean leads Iron Mountain’s global commercial organization, overseeing marketing, product management, commercial insights, revenue management and corporate communications. He also serves as General Manager for the company’s Adjacent Business Group, incubating and building new storage and services businesses that extend beyond traditional Information Management focus areas. Ted joined Iron Mountain from Microsoft, where he held multiple customer and partner-facing general manager roles, most recently leading new business efforts in emerging markets. Ted was recruited to Microsoft from his role as the CEO of an insurance underwriting software company. He previously held roles at management consultancies AT Kearney and KPMG, and spent his early career in Japan. He holds an MBA from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a BA in Asian History from Carleton College. Ted is a board director at Farmington, CT-based Mott Corporation and serves on the board of overseers of the Museum of Science, Boston.

Eileen Sweeney, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data Management

Eileen Sweeney leads Iron Mountain’s Global Data Management business which provides service to more than 30,000 customers across 75 markets via nearly 100 data management facilities. Sweeney is responsible for the continued development of the data management portfolio to support customers’ evolving information management needs. Prior to joining Iron Mountain, Sweeney served as Vice President and General Manager of CSC’s global manufacturing segment where she improved the group’s pipeline development and increased operating growth. She spent 20 years with CSC, and held a number of senior positions including global president of the manufacturing sector and managing director of the consulting group. Prior to CSC, Sweeney worked at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting and General Electric. She holds a Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Union College.

Deirdre Evens, CPO

Deirdre Evens is Chief People Officer for Iron Mountain. She oversees global human resources for Iron Mountain, leading people operations and strategy necessary to support the company's growth through the recruitment, development, retention, and enablement of global talent. She came to Iron Mountain from environmental, energy, and industrial services company Clean Harbors, where she most recently served as the executive vice president of human resources since 2011, overseeing all aspects of human resources and employee development for a global workforce of more than 13,000 employees. Evens joined Clean Harbors in 2007 as the company's executive vice president of sales and marketing. Prior to Clean Harbors, she was senior vice president of member insight for BJ's Wholesale Club, responsible for strategy, member analytics, market research and segment marketing. Evens also held several senior operational and executive leadership roles with Polaroid, beginning as a plant manager before becoming a director of manufacturing operations. Later, she became the vice president and general manager of Polaroid's $600 million imaging division. In this role, she had P&L responsibility and led worldwide marketing, strategy, sales and operations planning, and product management. Her final position at the company was senior vice president of worldwide marketing and strategy. She holds a bachelor s degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University.

Ned Bicks, Senior Vice President & CSO

Ned Bicks is senior vice president and Chief Strategy Officer for Iron Mountain, responsible for identifying and driving growth and value creation initiatives on a global basis. Prior to joining Iron Mountain, Bicks served as senior vice president of Corporate Strategy and Change Management at Forrester Research where he architected and drove the end-to-end restructuring of the company and its products to focus on critical client segments. In addition, he led Forrester’s corporate development and financial planning and development functions. He also served as a partner and strategy consultant at Monitor Group, focused on the intersection of new product development, marketing, and finance in the technology and life sciences spaces. Bicks holds a Bachelor of Arts with highest honors in Economics from Williams College and a Masters of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is an avid offshore sailor and serves on the Board of Directors of Courageous Sailing, a Boston-based non-profit that uses sailing and marine science programs to inspire learning, personal growth and leadership for inner city youth.

Patrick Keddy, Executive Vice President and General Manager, North America and Western Europe

In April 2015, Patrick was appointed EVP and GM, NA and Western Europe and is responsible for driving sustainable revenue growth and the profitability of the company’s mature or developed markets. Patrick brings a wealth of experience to the position. He has a strong track record of leading international and European businesses, improving their performance through stronger integration, strategic investments and optimization. Patrick Keddy joined Iron Mountain as the Senior Vice President, Western Europe in November 2011. Patrick worked at British Gas for 13 years and then moved to Pitney Bowes for a further 22 years, where he held positions including VP for Europe and President of PB International. In this latter role, he ran an autonomous $1.2 billion revenue business unit with, at its peak, 8,000 employees across 28 countries. Patrick holds a BSc in Administrative Science from the University of Aston in Birmingham. Outside of work, Patrick enjoys travel, history, cars and listening to all kinds of music from classical to classic rock. He likes to watch a variety of sports and enjoys keeping fit, skiing and playing golf.

Deborah Marson, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

Deborah Marson is the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Iron Mountain. In her role she is responsible for the global delivery of legal services, including commercial contracts, mergers & acquisitions, litigation, intellectual property, real estate, securities, privacy & compliance and corporate governance. Deborah joined Iron Mountain in November 2009 as a Vice President of Commercial Contracts for North America.

Prior to her time with Iron Mountain, Marson spent 27 years with The Gillette Company, where she most recently served as Deputy General Counsel. In this role she advised the Gillette worldwide consumer businesses. Her time at Gillette provided her expertise in advertising, environmental and antitrust law. Over the course of her tenure she served as counsel to each of the five Gillette businesses and concluded her time there as the head lawyer for all of the businesses. She also opened the legal offices in Asia and Latin America, which she ran for 5 years.

Deborah’s experience working for multi-national organizations like Iron Mountain and Gillette give her a global point of view and expertise in creating and expanding worldwide practices. Her work, which spans North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Europe often focuses on complex, multi-country strategic initiatives. As a trained lawyer with more than 30 years of corporate experience, Marson is able to understand the complex business implications of law and policy.

Deborah serves as the Clerk of the Iron Mountain Charitable Foundation and the Richard Reese Employee Relief Fund. She is an Overseer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and serves on the Board appointed Audit Committee.

Deborah holds a Bachelor’s degree from Colby College and a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School.

Facilities

The storage location in Dighton, Massachusetts was once a missile storage battery during the cold war. The best known Iron Mountain storage facility is a high-security storage facility in a former limestone mine at Boyers, Pennsylvania, near the city of Butler in the United States (41.093°N 79.911°W / 41.093; -79.911). It began storing records in 1954 and was purchased by Iron Mountain in 1998. It is here that Bill Gates stores his Corbis photographic collection in a refrigerated cave 220 feet (67 m) underground. Nearby, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management leases another underground cavern to store, and process government employee retirement papers.

Iron Mountain has additional underground storage facilities in the United States and the rest of the world. It stores the wills of Princess Diana, Charles Dickens, and Charles Darwin. It also stores the original recordings of Frank Sinatra and master recordings from Sony Music Entertainment. Most of the company's over 1,000 storage locations are in above-ground leased warehouse space located near customers.

Recognition

Security Magazine named Iron Mountain in “Security 500” of 2008, an annual ranking of the United States' 500 most secure companies. Iron Mountain was its industry’s sole representative in the category of business services. Published in the magazine’s November issue, the Security 500 ranks companies using several metrics such as the percentage of a company’s revenue spent on security. The survey tracks 16 vertical markets to serve as a benchmarking tool for companies.

Fortune magazine has had Iron Mountain on its list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies” every year from 2006 to 2011. In its category, "diversified outsourcing services", it has every year come in second behind Aramark. The only exception was 2006, when it also ranked below Convergys. The industry rankings reflect feedback from executives, directors, and analysts who rated Iron Mountain and industry peers on nine attributes of reputation, from investment value to quality of management.

In April 2009, Iron Mountain's Digital Record Center for Images was recognized as a "Product of the Year" by the Massachusetts Network Communications Council in the "Cloud Computing, Virtualization and Data Warehousing/Storage category".

Data losses

The company has received media attention for losing or misplacing customer files and data, particularly tapes containing private information such as home addresses and Social Security numbers. In 1997 a mysterious fire destroyed a warehouse just off the New Jersey Turnpike (USA) at Exit 8, full of corporate documents. This was two days after a smaller blaze damaged another warehouse several hundred feet away. Both buildings are owned by Iron Mountain Inc.

In May 2005, Time Warner disclosed that a container of 40 unencrypted backup tapes containing the personal information of 600,000 current and former employees had disappeared while being transported in an Iron Mountain van that made 18 other stops in Manhattan that day. After the loss, Time Warner began encrypting its tapes, and Iron Mountain advised its other clients to do the same. A year later, tapes containing personal information for about 17,000 Long Island Rail Road employees were lost while in transit to the railroad's office, along with tapes belonging to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs being shipped in the same vehicle.

In July 2006, a fire completely destroyed a leased six-story company warehouse in London. The paper records of 600 customers, including client files stored by several prominent London law firms, were lost. Also destroyed were the medical records of up to 240,000 patients of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. The London Fire Brigade later concluded that the fire was caused by arson. One day earlier, a smaller fire believed to have been caused by contractors making roof repairs damaged a company warehouse in Ottawa, Canada.

In August 2007, the company began retrofitting its unmarked vans and trucks with a new security and alarm system using chain of custody technology to reduce the exposure of customer data to possible loss. Among other security features, the system uses radio frequency authentication and real-time tracking capabilities to help prevent "mysterious disappearances" of tapes, or their actual removal from the vehicle, during transit.

A large fire struck Iron Mountain’s document storage warehouse and headquarters in Aprilia, Italy late on Friday November 4, 2011. According to news reports, the entire building was enveloped in flames causing substantial damage to the building and, presumably, to the documents and digital content stored there. Approximately 40 employees worked in the facility but nobody was injured.

On February 5, 2014, an intentional fire completely burned down the company's Buenos Aires warehouse. At least nine firefighters died in the incident while seven others were severely injured.