Siemens Promotes Susanne Seitz to Lead Newly Formed Smart Building Unit

Siemens has promoted Susanne Seitz to CEO of the Buildings Business Unit, a newly formed organization that spans "products, software and services for buildings."

The Buildings Business Unit, which took flight on October 1, 2024, focuses on "reliable and cost-efficient building operations, decarbonization and energy efficiency." The unit includes:

• Products for building control, fire safety and security, automation and operation;
• data-driven services;
• decarbonization programs and software; and
• Building X, Siemens’ digital building platform to digitalize, manage and optimize building operations.  

Executive Experience, Leadership Perspectives

Seitz previously was head of sales and marketing at Siemens Smart Infrastructure. Seitz moves to the new post amid a Siemens plan to spin off its EV charging business, which includes various managed services and cloud services for EV charging networks.

In a prepared statement Matthias Rebellius, managing board member and CEO of Smart Infrastructure, said: “Making existing and new buildings more sustainable has never been more urgent. After all, buildings generate more than 40 percent of annual global CO2 emissions and we have a responsibility to drive their decarbonization. Smarter buildings bring value to their owners, users, operators and to the world around them. I am confident in the newly-formed leadership team. Together with the combined expertise of almost 30,000 people globally, we can take our leadership position in the buildings market to the next level and pave the way to smart buildings of the future.” 

Added Seitz: “I am excited to have the opportunity to grow this dynamic business. With innovative technology we can accelerate the transformation of buildings to make them smarter, self-adaptive and more autonomous, harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, IT/OT convergence and digital services. This supports our customers in reducing their emissions and costs while improving user experience in building."

Smart Buildings, Decarbonization and Energy Efficiency Opportunities

Siemens competes against numerous entrenched giants -- including Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric and Honeywell -- and hundreds of startups in the effort to decarbonize buildings.

Among the trends to watch: Cities and countries worldwide are launching regulations that may force building owners and real estate investors to decarbonize their commercial and residential assets.

Examples include:

• Boston's Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO);
• New York Local Law 97;
• a large buildings emissions law in Seattle, Washington; and a
• Future Homes Standard in the United Kingdom.

Also of note: Demand for building energy management systems appears steady to strong, depending on which market forecast you potentially believe. For instance:

• The global building automation and control system market will reach $168.8 billion by 2031, up from $87.3 billion in 2022, Transparency Market Research forecast. That's a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%, the firm said.
• Spending on building management systems is expected to reach $19.25 billion in 2023, up from $6.65 billion in 2016. That's a 16.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during the forecast period, according to MarketsAndMarkets. 

The U.S. government also is assisting the market. For instance, the federal government plans to spend $250 million to help federal agencies implement net-zero building projects.

Siemens Revenue, Business Performance

The overall Siemens company remains profitable amid moderate single-digit percentage growth, according to Q3 2024 financial results released in August 2024. During the quarter, Siemens saw "significant order growth on contributions from all businesses, most notably the electrification and the buildings businesses," the company said in August 2024.

We'll be watching to see if Siemens discloses specific Buildings Business Unit results in its Q4 2024 financial statement, which sounds like it will surface around November 2024.