Manish Kumar has been named the head of the Secure Power & Data Centers at Schneider Electric.

He takes over from Pankaj Sharma, who has moved over to the company's Software & Services division after six years in charge of its data center unit.

"We’re only at the beginning of a long journey," Kumar said.

"The AI data centers of tomorrow will look very different from those of today. The pace of change is extraordinary - and so is the opportunity ahead of us."

In a blog post, Kumar said that "the race is on to build more capacity and to fundamentally rethink how data centers are designed and operated for resiliency, efficiency, and sustainability."

The company has long been one of the largest providers of power and cooling systems for data centers, but has faced increased competition from Vertiv and other rivals with the growth of liquid cooling for AI workloads.

In late 2024, the company acquired a controlling stake in cooling company Motivair to bolster its liquid cooling portfolio, and recently announced a 2.5MW CDU.

This past quarter, the company announced record revenue and said that its data center sales had seen triple-digit growth.