Bill Jackson is the executive director at Discovery Partners Institute. He was previously the vice president and president of Global Products, Building Technologies & Solutions at Johnson Controls, a $30 billion global multi-industrial leader in building technologies, data management and energy storage. He joined the company in 2011 as executive vice president of operations and innovation and since then has held various executive-level positions, including corporate development and spearheading mergers and acquisitions for Johnson Controls. Bill was responsible for all building products and their indirect channels, globally. This includes product development, engineering, manufacturing and procurement for the company’s Buildings business. The JCI Buildings business included industry-leading HVACR equipment and controls, fire detection, security products, fire suppression, building management systems and digital solutions.
Bill was at the consulting firm of Booz Allen & Hamilton and Booz & Company for 20 plus years. He held a number of leadership roles and sat on the Board of Directors.
Bill holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has been on several boards of directors, most recently Metaldyne Performance Group and Cincinnati Milacron. Bill serves on the Engineering Board of Visitors at the University of Illinois.
He and his wife, Kathy (who is also a proud graduate of the University of Illinois), have two daughters and live in Chicago.