The new CTO role taken on by Sankaran at smart building vendor Johnson Controls is aimed at accelerating product software engineering development and expanding customer solutions through the OpenBlue digital platform.

Reporting to CEO George Oliver, Sankaran will be leading software engineering team members from across Johnson Controls’ global portfolio.

Sankaran’s team will look to accelerate and unify product software engineering development efforts, creating common software architecture to further drive the enterprise software technology strategy.

The new appointment has held a number of technology transformation leadership roles, having most recently been chief information officer and head of innovation at TD Ameritrade.

At TD Ameritrade, Sankaran was responsible for digital strategy, customer platforms, software engineering, technology operations, cyber security, data management and analytics, and enterprise innovation.

Prior to working at TD Ameritrade, Sankaran held executive roles at Ford Motor Company from 2001 to 2013, including IT chief technology officer, and director of application development.

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“Vijay brings a wealth of strategic software experience to Johnson Controls and is ideally positioned to strengthen our solutions and market competitiveness through world class software engineering,’ said Johnson Controls chairman and CEO, Oliver.

“In this new, enterprise-wide chief technology officer role, Vijay and the software engineering team will accelerate our innovation, solve for unique customer outcomes and deliver for our customers on the key secular trends of sustainability, energy efficiency, and healthy, safe and connected smart buildings.”

Mike Ellis, chief customer and digital officer at Johnson Controls, commented: “Vijay’s role as CTO will be pivotal in driving continued growth and expansion for our OpenBlue digital platform as all of the elements of a building’s operational technology become connected.

“Through OpenBlue, that connectivity enables us to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence, as well as edge computing technologies, to predict patterns and trends, and provide positive customer outcomes for sustainability, energy efficiency, security and healthy building environments.”