Controls was established through a merger in Canada of Brookfield and Johnson Controlsa building systems and facility management company that was founded in the late 19th century by Warren S. Johnson, whose invention of the first electric room thermostat helped launch the building control industry. By 2012, Brookfield and Johnson Controls became an established industry leader with 11,500 locations across Canada. In 2007, Brookfield Asset Management acquired the Multiplex, an Australian international construction contracting company founded in 1962 by John Roberts. which was valued at that time at approximately A$7.3 billion. It was renamed Brookfield Multiplex in 2016. In 2012 Brookfield Asset Management and Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions (GWS) merged to create Brookfield Johnson Controls. In 2015, Brookfield Asset Management became the ultimate parent company of what is now Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions (BGIS), when it acquired control of Brookfield Johnson Controls from its joint venture partner, Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls. At that time, an activist investor had been putting pressure on Johnson Controls to divest of its real estate division. The facilities management business was renamed Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions (BGIS) as part of Brookfield's plan to establish a "leading global facilities management provider". BGIS expanded rapidly following Brookfield's taking control of BGIS in 2015, In 2016, when BGIS acquired the US-based data centre facility management serviceMcKinstry FMSwhich had over "350 engineers, technicians, planners and program managers", BGIS became one of the largest facility management companies serving date centres in North America. By 2017, when Gord Hicks was named as Toronto-based BGIS' CEO, the company had 7,000 staff members and 100 clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Asia, and Canada, which included contracts with the Canadian federal government. By 2022, according to a Carleton University School of Public Policy and Administration analysis of federal government contracts for real estate management, the Government of Canada spent over $1 billion on contracts with BGIS in 2021-2022, representing the largest vendor contracts at that time. The vendor with the second largest federal government contracts in 2021-2022 was IBM Canada with a contract valued at c. 476 million. In 2019 Brookfield Asset Management sold its BGIS shares to CCMP Capital Advisorsan American private equity investment firmfor over CAD$1.3 billion with Hicks remaining as CEO. and was awarded the 2020 Private Equity Deal of the Year for the BGIS sale. By 2018, Brookfield's major public subsidiaries included Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable