Acuity Brands Names Peter Han President of Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG) and Acquires Artificial Intelligence Accelerator Rockpile Ventures

Atlanta, May 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI; “Acuity”) a market-leading industrial technology company, today announced Peter Han, co-founder of Rockpile Ventures, as President of Acuity’s newly-named Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). Formerly referred to as Acuity’s Intelligent Buildings business, ISG includes Atrius® and Distech Controls™. Rockpile co-founder Dinesh Narayanan is now Vice President of Business Development of ISG. The addition of these leaders and the acquisition of Rockpile Ventures, a Seattle-based accelerator of early-stage artificial intelligence (AI) companies, better position Acuity for growth in solutions, software, and cloud application development.

“Attracting talented leaders is at the heart of our ability to continue delivering on our growth strategy,” said Neil Ashe, CEO, Acuity Brands. “We are thrilled to welcome Peter Han, Dinesh Narayanan and Rockpile Ventures to Acuity. Peter is well-known for driving business transformation with hardware and software solutions across verticals, and Dinesh along with the Rockpile team have supported that direction by building stakes in leading edge AI startups.”

Acuity now holds Rockpile’s equity interests in AI startups. Rockpile’s portfolio technologies have been deployed at leading enterprises across the energy, manufacturing, and retail verticals.

“We see great opportunities at Acuity to combine our existing footprint of sensors and back-office infrastructure with new AI models in the cloud,” said Peter Han, President, Intelligent Spaces Group, Acuity Brands. “We are building systems to sense, think, and act at scale and to use Acuity’s reach and capability to deploy those systems to make spaces smarter, safer, and greener.”

Han has a track record of delivering change and revenue growth through 25 years in the technology industry. He will lead ISG teams based in Atlanta, Montreal, San Francisco, and Seattle. Before Rockpile, he worked as Chief Marketing Officer of Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI), a $3.5 billion revenue server manufacturer in the San Francisco Bay area. He also spent 15 years at Microsoft managing teams that shipped hundreds of millions of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) devices annually, including desktops, notebooks, servers, and commercial IoT devices infused with software solutions. His team coordinated ecosystem strategies for diverse partners and channels, both in commercial distribution and consumer retail. 

Narayanan was formerly head of Microsoft’s devices incubation group, where he partnered with Azure and AI engineering, marketing, and business-development teams to build out edge solutions. He worked with cross-functional groups creating the markets for autonomous systems and ambient sensors.

About Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. The Company designs, manufactures, and brings to market products and services that make the world more brilliant, productive, and connected including building management systems, lighting, lighting controls, and location-aware applications. Acuity Brands achieves growth through the development of innovative new products and services.

Through the Acuity Business System, Acuity Brands achieves customer-focused efficiencies that allow the Company to increase market share and deliver superior returns. The Company looks to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals.

Acuity Brands is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 11,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuitybrands.com.

About Rockpile Ventures

Rockpile Ventures, a part of Acuity Brands’ Intelligent Spaces Group, is an accelerator of Edge AI startups. Rockpile Ventures helps early-stage companies drive co-engineering and co-selling partnerships with major cloud ecosystems, enabling faster adoption from proof-of-concept trials to market scale. It is based in Seattle, Washington. Learn more at www.rockpileventures.com.

Investor Contact:
Charlotte McLaughlin
Vice President, Investor Relations
(404) 853-1456
investorrelations@acuitybrands.com

Media Contact:
Candace Steele Flippin
Senior Vice President, Chief Communications Officer
candace@acuitybrands.com

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Attachments

• Peter Han
• Dinesh Narayanan