A Facebook policy expert spoke on campus Monday about issues ranging from social media’s impact on management practices to the future of Facebook’s in-state data storage center.
Corey Owens, an associate in privacy and public policy at Facebook, held an “informational session” at Nelson Hall. The company is building a data storage center in Rutherford County. Owens is in the state to meet with local delegations about the project. While in Raleigh, Owens said he wanted to touch base with N.C. State students and faculty.
“I am a lobbyist among other things,” Owens said. “A big part of my job in particular is public education. Sometimes that means I’m talking to legislators about legislation; sometimes that means I am talking to a group of management students about management issues and social media.”
During the session, Owens also addressed Facebook’s value and talked about plans for Facebook’s energy-saving solutions for the more than 500 million-user database. Goldman Sachs recently valued the company at $50 billion, Owens said during his talk.
Greg Behr, a North Carolina representative of Facebook and N.C. State alumnus, made it clear the event was not meant for recruitment.
“We are coming to the College of Management to talk a little bit about Facebook and the business of Facebook. [It’s] definitely not a recruitment event,” Behr said.
Behr said Owens’ appearance was more “an informational session about Facebook and business, and how to grow your own startup so maybe one day it could become like Facebook.”
It was obvious that a lot of people on campus wanted to hear what the Facebook executive had to say. Students and faculty in suits and ties quickly filled Nelson Hall Monday afternoon to hear Owens speak.
Eliza Chen, a second-year MBA student in the College of Management, said she attended because she admired the company’s success.
“Facebook is a terrific company. I’m thinking from this talk I can have a deeper knowledge of the company,” Chen said. “It’s always better to know more about a company you are interested in.”
According to Owens, the greatest cost of a data center is electricity. Therefore, Facebook does have plans to try and mitigate the center’s energy use. The data center project, slated to cost around $450 million, will strive for maximum environmental stability.
Owens said Facebook hopes the center will be one of the first in the world to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified, which is the international standard by which the greenness of a building is measured.
Julian DeFronzo, a junior in business administration with an information technology concentration, attended the event to find out more about the new data center, which is still under construction.
DeFronzo said he heard about Facebook’s green building initiative in Rutherford County before arriving at the event.
“I wanted to know more details about how [the data center] is operating. They mentioned their green power system. I wanted to know more about that,” said DeFronzo.
DeFronzo said he came away impressed with Owens’ presentation.
“[Owens] gave some good wisdom about the green grid, and how Facebook hopes to get the certification.”
