Investing.com -- Honeywell International Inc (NYSE:HON) announced on Tuesday that CEO Dave Cote will step down from his position next March when he will be succeeded by Chief Operating Officer Darius Adamczyk.
Cote, 62, will remain with the New Jersey-based conglomerate as Executive Chairman through the company's Annual Shareholder meeting in April, 2018. At that point, Cote will start a five-year consulting and non-compete agreement with Honeywell. Cote became Honeywell's CEO in July, 2002, five months after joining the company as president of Honeywell, Inc. Prior to that, Cote spent 25 years at General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) in a variety of senior executive positions.
"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 in a statement.
"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."
The announcement comes months after United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX) rejected Honeywell's $90.7 billion merger offer, amid low valuation and broad anti-trust regulatory concerns. The abrupt collapse in negotiations ended years of speculation regarding a potential combination between the two Fortune 500 companies.
Adamczyk was promoted to his current position in April after spending two years as the president of Honeywell's Performance Materials and Technology division, a $9.3 billion global leader in the development of high-performance products and solutions, which includes low global warming refrigerants, specialty films for healthcare and photovoltaic applications and leading technologies for the global refining and petrochemicals industry, according to the multinational conglomerate.
“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 in a statement. “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."
Shares in Honeywell fell slightly by 0.07 or 0.06% to 113.99 in after-hours trading. Honeywell closed Tuesday's regular session at 114.06, up 2.59 or 2.32%.