Honeywell (Morris Plains, N.J.; www.honeywell.com) announced that Darius Adamczyk, President and chief operating officer, will succeed Dave Cote as chief executive officer on March 31, 2017. 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. These moves ensure a seamless leadership transition and position Honeywell for continued outperformance versus peers.
“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. Scanning & Mobility and Honeywell Process Solutions are software-based businesses with advanced offerings that blend physical and digital capabilities, and they serve as benchmarks for where the rest of Honeywell is heading. 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.”
In addition to these management changes, Honeywell’s Board of Directors developed criteria for selection of a Lead Director position. The Board selected Chico Pardo, 66, for a two-year term with expanded responsibilities because of his deep knowledge and understanding of Honeywell gained during the past 16 years as a Board member, as well as his valuable experience while leading Telefonos De Mexico. Also, Chico Pardo, together with members of the Honeywell Board’s Management Development and Compensation Committee, are implementing a number of changes to Honeywell’s compensation plans.