Honeywell Names Successor to CEO

On Jun 29, 2016

Darius Adamczyk, Honeywell president and chief operating officer, will succeed Dave Cote as chief executive officer on March 31, 2017.

“Darius is absolutely the right person to lead our company into a new era where we will need to keep evolving to become even more global, more of a software company, and more nimble. He has the growth mindset, global acumen, and software expertise to be a highly successful CEO for Honeywell,” Cote said. “Darius has succeeded in every business leadership role he has ever held, whether it was doubling the size of our Scanning & Mobility business over four years, driving a dramatic turnaround of our Honeywell Process Solutions business over two years, or expanding margins in Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies despite a severe downturn in the oil and gas industry. Darius’ deep expertise in software will open new growth paths for all of our businesses, which are blending Honeywell’s advanced software programming capabilities with leading-edge physical products and unparalleled domain expertise in a wide variety of industries.

“It is a privilege to have the opportunity to take on a bigger role at Honeywell and ultimately to become the CEO, fully supported by Dave, our very strong Board, and a talented and experienced leadership team,” Adamczyk said. “It has been energizing to see all the ideas we are developing and implementing to build on our great positions in good industries. We have a long runway to accelerate organic growth and drive margin expansion with new offerings that blend our leading domain expertise with our advanced software capabilities to improve the quality of lives, enhance safety and comfort, and drive energy efficiency and productivity – all global macro trends that are big today and will only get bigger tomorrow. Software will represent a big portion of our growth over the next several years, which is why about half of our 23,000 engineers globally are software engineers. We are the first large Western company to reach CMMI® Level 5 capability among all our software engineers. This is a very high standard that uniquely qualifies us to compete effectively in the Internet of Things arena, where software capability has to be combined with product and domain knowledge. Our HOS Gold-supported culture and processes are fostering speed and entrepreneurialism among our global business enterprises while allowing us to leverage the scale and process strength of a large company.”

Cote, who has been Chairman and CEO of Honeywell since 2002, will continue as Executive Chairman until the Company’s Annual Shareowners Meeting in April 2018. After that, Cote will start a five-year consulting and non-compete agreement with Honeywell.

“Dave has been a passionate and transformative leader throughout his tenure at Honeywell, completely turning around the Company from its initial state of disarray,” said Jaime Chico Pardo, Honeywell’s Lead Director. “When Dave first took the job, Honeywell consisted of three legacy companies – AlliedSignal, Honeywell, and Pittway – that had not been integrated culturally or financially. It had missed earnings consistently, only 40 percent of sales were outside the U.S., the new product pipeline was empty, and the dividend hadn’t been raised in many years. Today, the Company is globally respected with sales outside the U.S. of 55 percent, a robust pipeline of new products that are primed to create new industries and markets around the world, and a strong and talented global workforce that represents the strong portfolio, processes, and culture that Dave and his team have put in place. Our dividend consistently grows faster than earnings, and we have an M&A track record that anyone would envy.

Adamczyk was named President and Chief Operating Officer earlier this year. Prior to that, he served as President and CEO of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies, a $9.3 billion global leader in the development of high-performance products and solutions, including low global warming refrigerants, specialty films for healthcare and photovoltaic applications, leading technologies for the global refining and petrochemicals industry, and process solutions. Previously, he was President of Honeywell Process Solutions, a global leader in automation and control systems. He became President of Honeywell Scanning & Mobility in 2008 when Metrologic, where he was Chief Executive Officer, was acquired by Honeywell. Prior to Honeywell, Adamczyk held several general management assignments at Ingersoll Rand, served as a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, and started his career as an electrical engineer at GE. Adamczyk earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering at Michigan State University, a master’s degree in computer engineering at Syracuse University, and an M.B.A. at Harvard University.

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