Johnson Controls International : Hires Company Outsider as Finance Chief -- Update

By Nina Trentmann and Mark Maurer

Johnson Controls International PLC named a technology executive from outside the company as its next finance chief.

The Cork, Ireland-based industrial conglomerate Tuesday said Olivier Leonetti would join in the coming weeks as executive vice president and chief financial officer-elect. He is set to take over as chief financial officer after Johnson Controls files its annual report for fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30, according to a spokesman.

Mr. Leonetti, 55 years old, is currently CFO at Zebra Technologies Corp., a Lincolnshire, Ill.-based company that sells identification and data-capture products, such as bar-code scanners.

Current Johnson Controls CFO Brian Stief, who was hired internally in 2014 after four years as controller, intends to leave by the end of 2020, the company said in a release.

Johnson Controls, which announced Mr. Stief's planned departure last November, said it searched internally and externally for a successor. "Olivier was the best candidate. He brings the right mix of financial acumen and operational experience," the spokesman said.

External hires made up 38.8% of CFO appointments at S&P 500 and Fortune 500 this year through July 31, compared with 39.5% in the prior-year period, according to the Crist|Kolder Volatility Report, which tracks executive recruitment trends and is set for publication later this month. Johnson Controls is part of the S&P 500.

Mr. Stief spent about six years in the CFO role at Johnson Controls. The average CFO tenure at S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies was 4.85 years as of July 31, Crist|Kolder said.

Incoming CFO Mr. Leonetti led product development and several company acquisitions at Zebra, experience that will be valuable in his new role, said Noah Kaye, an analyst at investment bank Oppenheimer & Co.

Johnson Controls has been focused on strengthening its building-efficiency products and services. The company in July launched a digital platform called OpenBlue that helps customers with building management.

"To bring in a CFO with a background in digital solutions at a time when the company just launched an integrated digital suite seems timely," Mr. Kaye said.

The new CFO is likely to make further cost reductions to offset recent losses, said Brian Bernard, an analyst at financial-services firm Morningstar Research Services LLC. "It's important to really try to optimize that cost structure to deal with the pretty big decline in sales across the board here," Mr. Bernard said.

Johnson Controls reported a loss of $182 million in the quarter ended June 30, compared with a profit of $4.19 billion in the same three-month period a year earlier.

Colin Kellaher contributed to this article.

Write to Nina Trentmann at [e-mail] and Mark Maurer at [e-mail]