Submer names Jean-Marc Denis Chief Product Officer to drive AI datacentre expansion
16 Nov 2025 - Submer has appointed Jean-Marc Denis as Chief Product Officer to lead its global product strategy and accelerate growth in AI-ready datacentre solutions. The move signals a clear shift from single-technology offerings to integrated, full-stack infrastructure built for high-density AI workloads.
Why this matters for product leaders
- From component to platform: Submer is moving beyond immersion liquid cooling into an end-to-end offering that spans concept design, thermal architecture, deployment, and operations.
- Roadmap implications: Expect stronger integration across thermal systems, facility design, deployment tooling, and lifecycle services-positioned as packaged solutions rather than one-off components.
- KPIs that will drive decisions: Rack density (kW/rack), deployment lead time, TCO per unit of compute, PUE/WUE, maintenance overhead, and sustainability reporting.
- Partner strategy: Closer alignment with GPU vendors, system integrators, facility partners, and standards bodies to reduce integration risk and speed up time-to-live.
Leadership background
Denis brings 30+ years in high-performance computing with senior roles at Viridien, Atos, Silicon Graphics, Compaq, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Bull. At Bull, he launched the company's HPC business in 2004, contributing to advanced supercomputing systems worldwide.
This experience fits Submer's push to serve AI workloads that demand high density, sustainability, and predictable deployment at scale.
Product strategy: what to expect
- Integrated design kits: Concept-to-deploy packages that align facility specs, thermal architecture, and on-site rollouts for AI-ready builds.
- Reference configurations: Standardized building blocks that reduce engineering cycles, address GPU cooling needs, and simplify compliance.
- Lifecycle services: Design, build, and operate models with clear SLAs, telemetry, and performance guarantees.
- Sustainability as a product feature: Instrumentation for real-time energy and water metrics built into the stack, not bolted on.
"There's never been a more exciting time to join Submer. Submer's growth is remarkable. The company has evolved from an immersion liquid cooling technology provider into a true end-to-end datacentre partner, uniquely positioned to define how AI-ready infrastructure is designed and built," said Jean-Marc Denis, Chief Product Officer, Submer.
Go-to-market: global activity and delivery
Submer is increasing its work across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia, taking on projects that demand scalable, high-performance infrastructure for AI workloads. The company is positioning itself as a trusted advisor for teams moving to AI-ready facilities with strict efficiency and sustainability targets.
Beyond cooling, Submer now supports the full datacentre lifecycle-design, build, and operations-across large-scale and edge environments.
Patrick Smets, Chief Executive Officer at Submer, said, "Jean-Marc is a veteran in high-performance computing and product leadership. His experience brings new strength and momentum to our end-to-end offering for AI datacentres. We're thrilled to welcome him to the team and look forward to the impact he'll have in shaping Submer's next phase of growth."
What product teams should do next
- Design for interoperability: Align facility water temps, GPU vendor requirements, and safety standards early to avoid late-stage rework.
- Package outcomes, not parts: Sell and build around density, time-to-deploy, and sustainability metrics that matter to buyers.
- Operationalize telemetry: Make energy, water, and performance data first-class features with clear reporting and alerts.
- Cover brownfield scenarios: Create retrofit playbooks for existing sites, not just greenfield builds.
- Segment by workload: Differentiate offerings for training vs. inference, on-prem vs. edge, and capacity planning windows.
Context and resources
- For standards and best practices in advanced cooling, see the Open Compute Project's Advanced Cooling Solutions project: Open Compute Project ACS.
- Upskilling your team on AI product capabilities and go-to-market fundamentals: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job
Bottom line
Submer's appointment of Jean-Marc Denis points to a product strategy built around integrated AI datacentre solutions, measurable efficiency, and faster deployment. For product leaders, the opportunity is clear: build offerings that remove integration risk, prove operational gains, and scale with the workload mix your customers actually run.
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