Imran Latif has joined Johnson Controls as vice president, global technology and innovation, data centers.

Latif spent the last 14-and-a-half years at Brookhaven National Laboratory, most recently as its chief operations officer (COO) for data center infrastructure.

"Having had the opportunity to work across hyperscale and mission-critical environments, I’m honored to join an industry leader like Johnson Controls to help shape the future of digital infrastructure, advancing innovation, sustainability, and intelligent growth on a global scale," Latif said on LinkedIn.

"In this global role, I’ll focus on advancing data center technologies across architecture strategy, emerging tech, and research collaborations, delivering next-gen solutions for AI, cloud, IoT, and HPC with efficiency and resilience at the core."

At Brookhaven, Latif led the design, construction, and operational management of multi-megawatt HPC and AI inference data centers using direct-to-chip and immersion cooling technologies, supporting 100kW+ rack densities.

He also developed a seawater-cooled system inspired by the Sines data center in Europe.

Latif's departure from the Department of Energy comes amid drastic cuts to the US governmental agency, mass layoffs, and the cessation of renewable research projects.