Meet the COO: Honeywell veteran Vimal Kapur becomes COO
Few people know diversified high-tech manufacturer Honeywell quite so well as Vimal Kapur. Not only has Kapur clocked up 33 years of experience at the firm, serving as CEO across several Honeywell businesses, but he has been part of its transition from industrial manufacturer to a high-tech company.
It’s little surprise then that the 56-year-old Honeywell veteran is rising further up the leadership ranks, having been appointed Chief Operating Officer of the entire business – a role that will see Kapur work closely with CEO Darius Adamczyk to steer the Fortune 100 technology giant to continued profitable growth.
In his new role, Kapur will help to drive the growth of Honeywell’s operating businesses, including innovating new solutions to help customers drive their sustainability transformations and accelerate their digital transformation journeys.
He will also oversee the continued integration of Honeywell’s operating system, Honeywell Accelerator, across the organisation and progress its adoption as a learning tool for all Honeywell employees.
COO appointment comes as Honeywell continues double-digit growth
This key appointment comes as Honeywell continues to create new and innovative technologies to help aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more efficient and sustainable.
The North Carolina-headquartered company has transitioned over the past few years from a large industrial conglomerate to a company that is putting technology at the centre and edge of many of its business units.
Honeywell saw organic sales grow by 4% in the second quarter of 2022 despite headwinds. This was led by strong double-digit growth in the company’s commercial aerospace, building products, advanced sensing technologies, and advanced materials businesses.
Such a strong performance despite the challenging macroeconomic backdrop is thanks in part to the company’s “rigorous operating principles” which enable Honeywell to mitigate external challenges and deliver results that maximise shareholder value, says Adamczyk.
Why Vimal Kapur is the perfect choice for the Honeywell COO role
With more than three decades of experience across various Honeywell businesses and having proven his operational capabilities across many different industries, business models, Vimal is “uniquely qualified” for the role of COO, according to Adamczyk.
In his 33 years at the firm, Vimal has “achieved a deep understanding of the Honeywell portfolio, our end markets, and our customers’ needs”, says Adamczyk, and has successfully driven sustainability and digitalisation solutions across the company’s portfolio.
Kapur has been at the helm of various Honeywell businesses, and in his most recent role as CEO of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT), he led a business with 20,000 employees across 100 countries delivering sustainability and digitalisation solutions for industrial performance.
Under his four-year leadership, PMT rapidly pivoted its portfolio to sustainable offering in circularity, energy evolution, environmental transformation, resiliency, and accountability. This included launching innovative technologies and partnerships with Avangard Innovative and Sacyr with new plastics recycling technology and with TotalEnergies for a petrochemical offtake company.
Kapur and his team further introduced large-scale renewable energy storage for wind and solar usage with Duke Energy and helped Walmart and AstraZeneca lower their carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency with the Solstice Line of products.
Kapur also served as CEO of Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT) for three years. Under his leadership, the business – which delivers solutions to improve energy performance, air quality, and safety of commercial buildings, – successfully launched the Healthy Building portfolio and expanded margins by -200 basis points over three years.
Prior to this, Kapur held various leadership roles. He successfully led Honeywell Process Solutions through the oil and gas downturn, increasing sales by 6% over a three-year period; and built the foundation of Advanced Solutions, the firm’s outcome-driven software business, successfully integrating Matrikon, which Honeywell acquired, into the business.
He has a degree in electronic engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering in India.
