An established leader in software technology, Tridium works closely with international manufacturers and other software companies. For almost 20 years, our open framework has enabled and grown the Internet of Things.

Leadership Team

Tridium’s associates and leaders are drawn from a range of backgrounds. We share a passion for collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.

Simon Liu
Managing Director, Tridium APAC

Simon Liu, Managing Director of Tridium APAC, is responsible for Tridium business operations in APAC region, including Market Development, Sales and Customer Technical Service etc. Tridium is an independent subsidiary of Honeywell Inc.

Simon Liu joined Honeywell in May-2002, ever took several positions in his career in Honeywell, including new product Research and Development (R&D), Product Marketing, Sales and Business general management etc. He used to be R&D Director of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Control Global Design Center (Tianjin), Business Director of Honeywell Environmental and Combustion Control (APAC), and Managing Director of Tridium APAC etc. Prior Honeywell and Tridium, Simon Liu ever worked for Applied Materials (China) as Technical Support Manager, and P&G (Tianjin) as Production Manager etc.

Simon Liu graduated from Shengyang Polytechnic University with a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering in July/1991, and from Tianjin University in Mechanical Engineering as well in April/1997. Simon received his EMBA from CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) in Sep/2008.

Mike Luscombe
VP, Global Alliances

Mike joined Tridium in 2010 and has responsibility for alliances, acquisitions and the global solutions practice. His strengths lie in delivering new technologies to market and opening new geographic and vertical markets. For seven years prior to Tridium he was the GM of an early stage cloud services company that pioneered hosted virtual desktop infrastructure and VoIP services.

At Tridium he led the acquisition of Niagara Analytics, developed alliances with market leading tech companies, drove expansion into the manufacturing and telecom sectors and launched a global solution practice.

Mike brings senior leadership and international business development experience from 3 start-ups and 20 years in software & technology at Fortune 100 companies, including GE where during his ten-year tenure he held progressively responsible positions in market development, business development and product management. He received a Global Leadership Certificate in 2018 from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Ed Merwin
Director, Strategic Business

Ed Merwin has over 44 years of experience in the building automation industry in field operations, sales, marketing, and management. Ed was with Honeywell, Inc. for 25 years before joining Tridium, Inc. in 2001. Ed is currently the Director of Strategic Business working with Tridium marketing, engineering, and sales teams to support Tridium’s long term business strategy in various markets. He also works with end users, owners, consultants and system integrators daily to help understand the technology needs of these valued customers. Ed presents regularly on the value of systems and data integration in creating safe, comfortable, and efficient intelligent buildings. Ed is an associate member of ASHRAE and has a B.S. in Engineering Technology from Old Dominion University.

Kevin T. Smith
CTO and Chief Architect

Kevin T. Smith is Tridium’s CTO and Chief Architect. He provides technology strategy and direction for all of Tridium’s products to the architecture and engineering teams. For more than 25 years, Kevin has led technology organizations and endeavored to develop highly secure, data-focused software solutions for a wide variety of customers. He's the author of seven technology books on topics such as cybersecurity, big data analytics, semantics, software engineering and enterprise architecture. He's a frequent speaker at industry conferences on the subjects of building automation, the IoT and cybersecurity. Kevin received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary. He received a Master’s degree in Computer Science, along with post-graduate certificate degrees in Software Systems Engineering and Information Systems Security from George Mason University.

Therese Sullivan
Customer Marketing Leader

Therese Sullivan is Customer Marketing Leader at Tridium. She came to this role after running her own Silicon Valley-based marketing agency, BuildingContext.me, where she served a mix of clients including Smart Building software start-ups, architecture & engineering firms, commercial building system integrators, and OEMs in the buildings industry. She has been a Contributing Editor to AutomatedBuildings.com and a Managing Editor for Haystack Connections Magazine. Therese holds an MBA in Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business.

Tridium’s History


The Early Days

In the 1990s, the Internet and the World Wide Web were becoming mainstream commercial technologies. Smart devices and systems began to appear in buildings, machines, homes, cars and virtually everywhere else, but few standards existed for interoperability among new and already-installed devices.

Initiatives to form standard communication protocols created a few open system environments (such as LonWorks® and BACnet®). But these protocols, focused at the embedded device level, provided interoperability only when all the devices were based on the same protocol.

Working out of a spare room in the west end of Richmond, Virginia, a small group of building industry experts and freshly minted graduates in electrical engineering and computer science gathered to solve the problem. The industry experts had the experience to know what businesses needed, and the new graduates were freethinking enough to take an unconventional approach.

That unconventional approach was to design an open, Internet-based infrastructure that would allow software developers to develop applications that could be used across a wide variety of systems, including existing legacy systems and competing systems from different manufacturers.

Tridium was founded by entrepreneurs who partnered with entrepreneurs. Our early success was based on a novel technology and a forward-thinking set of early adopters who took a chance and challenged the status quo of closed, proprietary systems.

In 1997, the company produced a functional system prototype. Two years later, Tridium launched its revolutionary Niagara Framework®.

Launch and Alliances

1999—Tridium launches the Niagara Framework® and begins working with a network of independent early adopters to make the Niagara infrastructure a true industry standard. Building on Niagara, Tridium also creates the first Web-enabled application specifically designed for the building automation and energy services industries and names the brand Vykon® the following year.

2000—Honeywell and Tridium announces a multiyear alliance, allowing Honeywell to use Tridium’s breakthrough technology for its building automation customers. That same year, Vageri Electrical & Instrumentation, B.V., in the Netherlands becomes the first Tridium System Integrator to provide the Niagara Framework to the European market. Tridium raises $20 million in venture capital financing.

2001—Tridium announces a series of strategic alliances with major industrial figures such as Emerson, Schneider Electric, Invensys and Carrier Corporation.

2002—John Petze is appointed president and chief executive officer. Tridium announces an additional $5 million round of capital funding.

2004—Tridium hosts the inaugural Niagara Summit. This open conference brings together end users, integrators and developers for comprehensive learning and networking opportunities.

2005—Honeywell announces the acquisition of Tridium, which becomes an independent business entity of Honeywell International.

Rapid Growth

2006—Tridium introduces Niagara Central, an interactive portal for the Niagara community. Wawa Food Markets begins working with Tridium as it integrates diverse systems across all 550 of its stores.

2007—Tridium introduces the JACE®-6 controller. A record number of integrators, consultants, manufacturers, end users and developers attend the European Niagara Forum.

2008—The Niagara Framework surpasses 100,000 instances.

2009—Tridium releases Enterprise Security, a modular, highly scalable security management and access control solution.

2010—The Niagara Framework surpasses 200,000 instances.

Advancing the Internet of Things

2011—Tridium continues its commitment to QNX Software Systems with the release of Niagara AX 3.6.

2012—The Niagara Framework exceeds 300,000 instances, becoming one of the most utilized platforms for the Internet of Things.

2013—Nino A. DiCosmo is appointed president and general manager of the company. Tridium announces the formation of its Professional Services Group to meet the increasing demand for consulting and education services.

2014—Tridium acquires DataEye, an energy analytics application, from Controlco, a California-based controls products and solutions provider.

2015—Tridium launches the next-generation IoT framework, Niagara 4, and all-new hardware platform, the JACE® 8000.

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