Sheffield firm Iceotope, a global leader in precision liquid cooling technology, has named a new CEO/president and chair.
David Craig, who led the company from 2015, retired from the position of CEO last summer. The company has been led jointly by chief commercial officer Nathan Blom and chief financial officer Simon Jesenko since that time.
San Francisco-based Jonathan Ballon, a recognised leader in technology and AI, has now been named CEO and president. He was most recently the president and CEO of SkyHive, a GenAI company acquired in 2024.
As a non-executive director, he works with several AI semiconductor platform startups, as well as previously holding senior executive roles in large technology companies such as Intel and Cisco.
“Iceotope is solving one of the most imminent AI challenges – extreme cooling efficiency for increasingly dense and power-hungry computing infrastructure,” said Ballon.
“The industry is actively seeking scalable, practical solutions, and Iceotope’s technology, refined over the last decade, is ready to meet that demand. The data centre market is shifting toward liquid cooling. The time for Iceotope is now.”
Iceotope’s unique liquid cooling approach for AI systems is based on 52 patents with 90 more pending. It combines the benefits of immersion and the simplicity of direct-to-chip, with a pragmatic solution that exceeds the performance of both.
Iceotope’s technology integrates into existing data centre environments, enabling rapid adoption and ensuring data centres operate efficiently and reliably at peak performance.
Alain Andreoli, a seasoned technology executive with over 30 years of experience, joins as non-executive chairman. A former CEO and Big Tech senior executive, he was most recently president and EVP of the Hybrid IT Group at HPE.
Previously he ran large businesses at Sun Microsystems, NTT and Texas Instruments.
“The future of AI computing hinges on our ability to efficiently remove heat from increasingly powerful processors. The liquid cooling for AI solutions invented by Iceotope are not only solving the scaling challenges of AI infrastructure but are also tackling critical issues related to energy efficiency and sustainability,” said Andreoli.
“Across my decades of experience, I’ve witnessed numerous technological inflection points that have reshaped industries. Today, liquid cooling stands at one such point, and Iceotope has the best technology to become the leader in this market.”