Leadership

Chris Scalia is Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Johnson Controls. He and his team are accountable for the company’s long-term talent, leadership, safety, and culture strategies focused on building one of the most consequential thermal technology company for our time.

Chris spends most of his time directly connecting with customers and the Johnson Controls colleagues around the world who directly serve them. This approach ensures that the Johnson Controls’ operations, growth strategies, and colleague experience are aligned with what it takes to retain and win more customers than the competition.

Chris’ approach to HR is to build end-to-end systems capability, leveraging what he calls the four corners of performance: A) advanced data analysis, B) evidence-based talent management, C) continuous improvement driven by a strong business system and talent system, and D) organizational alignment. He and his team are advancing a long-term HR transformation agenda toward a goal of making work easier and more effective for customer-serving colleagues, turning Johnson Controls into a talent powerhouse, and redesigning work to better enable an aggressive growth agenda.

Chris joined Johnson Controls in July 2025 after nearly 20 years and more than a dozen roles at The Hershey Company, where he was the company’s CHRO. His 25-year career spans all aspects of human resources, talent and leadership, business operations, transformation, employment law, labor relations, and safety. He earned an Executive Master’s degree in Human Resources from Cornell University, a J.D. from Penn State, and a B.A. from Juniata College.