Washington D.C., February 2nd 2022: International Data Center Authority (IDCA) today announced that Mr. Winston Ma （马文彦）CFA Esq. has joined IDCA as a member of the board of directors and the financial counsel of the board. “As the Big Data is going to get even bigger with Metaverse, I am excited and enthusiastic about joining the IDCA family as the leading global authority and industry pioneer on many fronts”, stated Winston Ma, on the occasion of his joining the IDCA board of directors.

Winston is the author of several key books, including The Digital War: How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace (2021) and The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy (2020). In 2013 Winston Ma, was selected as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum (WEF), and in 2014 he received the NYU Distinguished Alumni Award.

Winston continued, “To support a concept as bold as the Metaverse, we need several orders of magnitude more powerful computing capability, accessible at even lower latencies, and the emergence of Edge-computing. I am passionate about working with IDCA on its pioneering Digital Economy initiatives to help nations and corporates alike, with the next generation standards, education, and strategic roadmaps on the Application Ecosystem, cloud infrastructure and ‘data’ center revolution, and disruptive technologies such as AI, IoT, and blockchain.”

In line with its 2022 and beyond vision, IDCA is unleashing a series of very efficient, consecutive, yet aggressive plans by involving key global leaders, working with mega institutions, expanding strategic alliances, and introducing advanced solutions and services to the national and international markets.

The Chairman of IDCA, Mehdi Paryavi, stated, “Winston is a thinker, an expert of digital economies and financial markets on a global scale. We share the same visions and motives to help shape a better future for humanity and we feel fortunate to have him on our board as IDCA is taking its global involvements to a whole new level.”

Winston Ma is currently the board Chairman of Nasdaq-listed MCAA, a European tech SPAC. Most recently for 10 years, he was Managing Director and Head of North America Office for China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s sovereign wealth fund. Prior to that, Mr. Ma served as the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, a vice president at J.P. Morgan investment banking, and a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. He is one of a small number of native Chinese who has worked as investment professionals and practicing capital markets attorneys in both the United States and China. A nationally certified Software Programmer as early as 1994. Winston is is the Managing Partner of CloudTree Ventures, a VC fund focusing on the technologies driving interactive entertainment and the Metaverse, and Author of The Hunt for Unicorns.