Johnson Controls has announced that 38-year company veteran Jeff Williams is retiring and that a global search is underway for his successor. Williams’ replacement will inherit a business group generating more than a third of Johnson Controls approximately $24B annual revenues including product development and research & development.
Williams started at Johnson Controls in 1984 as a sales account manager and spent more than 30 years in its automotive business before taking over as leader of its Global Products business in 2019. He was the co-author of the Johnson Controls Manufacturing Systems operating system that continues to guide the company’s global operations today.
“Jeff has been a phenomenal member of our executive leadership team over the past decades, combining an unwavering will to win with faultless integrity,” said George Oliver, Johnson Controls Chairman and CEO. “We thank him for his years of service, and he leaves the Global Products business in fantastic shape, with an amazing opportunity for a new leader to come in and drive forward.
He added: “Johnson Controls is at a unique point in its near 140-year history as it looks to move an industry that founder Warren Johnson helped to create when he invented the electric room thermostat in 1883. The next chapter will see us reshaping how buildings technology is designed and applied, using all the power of artificial intelligence through Johnson Controls Openblue platform. Our aim now, and at the heart of the new role Jeff’s successor will take on, is to maximize the performance of our customer’s buildings; harvesting and applying data insights to optimise every aspect of operations – elevating the performance of human users and equipment, while making environments healthier, more secure and sustainable through lowering energy and water use.”
Within Global products, alongside leading the HVAC/R and Residential business units, a key focus for Williams’ successor will be steering the fire, security and controls teams, which are the heart of the transformation of buildings’ operational technology. The application of advanced solutions utilising Machine Learning is elevating the capacity for ultra-accurate detection insights, ever more efficient responses and proactive fault reporting.
