David M. Cote

David Cote
Born	David M. Cote (1952-07-19) 19 July 1952 Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S.
Education	Pembroke Academy
Alma mater	University of New Hampshire
Salary	$29,142,121 (total compensation, FY2014)[1]
Children	3 (2 from first marriage, 1 from second)[2]

Dave Cote presented CEO of Year Award 2013

Cote cuts the ribbon with Richard Walden to open the Ecole Nationale Jacob Martin Henriquez school in Jacmel, Haiti on March 11, 2011.

David M. "Dave" Cote (born July 19, 1952^[3]) is an American businessman, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Honeywell, a large American multinational conglomerate. Before Honeywell, Cote worked for General Electric and TRW. He was on the JP Morgan Chase risk committee during the period in which the firm lost $2 billion trading credit derivatives.

Early life

Cote was born in Manchester, New Hampshire and graduated from Pembroke Academy in Pembroke, New Hampshire.^[4] In 1976, he graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor's degree in business administration.

Career

General Electric

Cote joined General Electric in November 1979, where he served twenty years. In 1985, an unexpected meeting with CEO Jack Welch became the catalyst for Cote's advancement at GE.^[5] Welch promoted Cote three levels of management, progressing through a series of positions in manufacturing, finance, marketing, strategic planning and general management. He became corporate senior vice president and president and CEO of GE Appliances in 1996.^[5]

TRW

In November 1999, Cote joined TRW as president and COO where he introduced the Six Sigma management system to reduce defects in manufacturing.^[6][7] In February 2001, Cote was appointed CEO, and later chairman of the board.^[8] Cote led the creation of the TRW subsidiary Velocium, which manufactured ultra-high-speed semiconductors.^[6]

In February 2002, Cote announced he would be leaving TRW. Reportedly, the news surprised employees and some executives, who learned of Cote's departure hours before the announcement.^[9][10]

Honeywell

Honeywell selected Cote as successor to Lawrence Bossidy, following the Allied Signal acquisition of Honeywell and European Union's rejection of Honeywell's merger with General Electric.^[11] On February 19, 2002, Cote was elected president, CEO and a member of the board of directors at Honeywell. After Bossidy retired as chairman, in July 2002, Cote was elected chairman of the board.^[11]

While CEO of Honeywell International in 2014, Cote earned a total compensation of US$21,931,769 which included a base salary of $1,865,769, an annual bonus of $5,500,000, and $9,816,000 in stock options.^[12]

In June 2016, it was announced that Cote would step down as CEO at Honeywell at the end of March 2017. He will be succeeded by Darius Adamczyk. Cote will continue as executive chairman through April 2018.^[13]

Appointments

Banking

Cote was a member of the board of directors at JPMorgan Chase and an advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). In 2012, Cote came under criticism as one of the three members of JP Morgan Chase's risk committee, after CEO Jamie Dimon said on May 10, 2012 that the firm’s chief investment office suffered a $2 billion loss trading credit derivatives.^[14] Commentators identified a lack of relevant expertise among the members of the committee, identifying Cote and a museum official who also served, in particular for their lack of banking experience.^[15]

In February 2014 it was announced that Cote would fill a vacancy on the board of the New York Federal Reserve. Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, writing in The New York Times, raised doubts about the suitability of Cote's appointment, noting the "systematic breakdown of compliance and risk control" during the period when Cote was on the board of JPMorgan Chase, whilst also noting that some, but not all, of the problems there pre-dated Cote's appointment.^[16] The election papers did not mention Cote's role at JPMorgan Chase in his candidate C.V.^[17]

Other

Cote was a member of the Executive Committee of The Business Council for 2011 and 2012.^[18]

Government and political donations

Rise in Honeywell International's political donations since appointment of David Cote in 2002.^[19]

In 2010, President Obama named Cote as one of the Chief Executives he most admired.^[20] In 2009, Cote was invited to the White House to meet the President for a briefing on the US economic recovery plan^[21] and in November 2009, he was one of 12 businesspeople asked by the White House to host the US-India CEO Forum, which Cote and Ratan Tata co-chaired.^[22] In February 2010, Cote was selected by President Obama to be on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, more commonly known as the debt panel.^[4][23]

Since his tenure at Honeywell began in 2002, the company's donations via its Political Action Committee have risen from $212,112 in 2002 to $7,879,570 in 2014.^[19]

Attitude to deficit reduction

Cote is a co-founder of Fix the Debt, a group of executives and former legislators who campaign for deficit reduction and tax reform. In a 2013 interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader, Cote identified the problem of debt reduction in the United States as being the fact that "Washington is ruled by fear of voters ... and the three 'h's' prevail—hysteria, histrionics and hyperbole". He also framed the options for deficit reduction in terms of either increases in taxes or a reduction in social security benefits, saying, "If you have people saying, 'Don't raise my taxes, but don't cut my benefits,' it makes it really difficult to get anything done."^[24]

Kevin Connor, director of the Public Accountability Initiative, as quoted in The New York Times, identified a possible conflict of interest between the broad objectives of the group and the reality of their day to day lobbying of Washington for favorable tax treatment of their own industries and continued government spending on programs that benefit their companies. He also pointed out that the group calls for a reduction in government spending on social security but not on defence spending, a major business area for Honeywell. "It’s easier to get face time in Washington as a deficit hawk than as a corporate hack," he said, continuing "They are spending millions, but they are protecting billions in defense contracts and tax giveaways that would otherwise be on the chopping block."^[25]

In 2013, during negotiations over the Federal deficit during which some Republicans threatened a default, one lobbyist was quoted as identifying "the rise of an ideological wing [within the Republican Party] that is now willing to stand up to business interests".^[26] Cote was quoted as saying "It's clearly this faction within the Republican Party that's causing the issue right now" which was interpreted by OpenSecrets.org as an implied threat that if the dissident Republicans did not co-operate, contributions from Honeywell's Political Action Committee could be cut. In 2012, Honeywell's PAC and employees made political donations of about $5.3 million to candidates and committees.^[27]

In March 2014, Cote presented his views on deficit reduction and American competitiveness to the House Committee on Financial Services of the United States House of Representatives.^[28]

Awards

Cote was named 2013 Chief Executive of the Year by Chief Executive magazine.^[29]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David M. Cote.

• Appearances on C-SPAN