August 17, 2026
Ruth Gratzke Named President of Acuity Brands Lighting
Siemens infrastructure veteran succeeds Sach Sankpal as Acuity enters fiscal 2027
Acuity Inc. named Ruth Gratzke President of Acuity Brands Lighting, continuing a run of leadership hires built around systems and infrastructure rather than commodity LED fixtures. She starts leading the $3.6 billion business unit on September 1, the first day of Acuity's fiscal 2027, and reports to CEO Neil Ashe.
Gratzke joins from Siemens, where she most recently served as President of Siemens Smart Infrastructure US and CEO of Siemens Industry, Inc. She also held senior roles at General Electric and Hubbell, building a career around smart buildings, grid-edge technology and energy infrastructure. It's the kind of resume suited to proving a building management platform to a facilities director, not a pallet of $20 flat panels to a distributor warehouse.
That commercial leadership profile places her alongside her two immediate predecessors. Trevor Palmer, Acuity Brands Lighting president from 2021 to 2024, ascended through Acuity's Distech Controls acquisition and its Digital Lighting Networks business. Sach Sankpal, who succeeded Palmer in July 2024, came from Resideo, Trimble and Honeywell, with a record in industrial technology turnarounds rather than lighting-specific sales.
What Acuity Said, and Didn't
Ashe called Gratzke "the right leader" to build on Acuity Brands Lighting's position and cited her record with complex technology and infrastructure businesses. The release states that Sankpal will remain with Acuity for a transition period, working with Gratzke and Ashe on continuity, but does not specify a departure date or say whether he will hold another role at the company afterward.
Inside Lighting emailed Acuity for additional context, asking whether Sankpal is leaving the company once the transition ends, what prompted the change now, and what Acuity wants Gratzke to accomplish under the "next season" language in the announcement. Acuity declined to offer additional details.
The Backdrop
Acuity Brands Lighting entered this leadership change as Acuity's larger segment by a wide margin, though its share of the overall pie has been shrinking as Intelligent Spaces grows. In the fiscal third quarter reported in June, Lighting posted $905.2 million in sales, down 1.9%, against $303.5 million for Intelligent Spaces, up nearly 15 percent, meaning Lighting now accounts for roughly three-quarters of segment revenue rather than the 93% it represented as recently as 2024, pre-QSC acquisition.
Gratzke's own account of her Siemens tenure, posted to LinkedIn announcing her departure, cited six consecutive years of record results at Smart Infrastructure US, work with hyperscale data center customers, and a 2023 SI Country of the Year designation. She did not name her Acuity destination in that post.
Acuity has not detailed whether Gratzke's arrival signals a change in Acuity Brands Lighting's strategy or solely its leadership. For agents, distributors and specifiers who sell and specify Acuity’s lighting and controls lines, the open questions are the same ones Inside Lighting put to the company: what changes under the new president, and what stays the same.
