Vimal Kapur

Overview

Vimal Kapur
Born	1965 (age 60–61) India
Citizenship	India, United States
Education	Bachelor's degree in electronics engineering (instrumentation)
Alma mater	Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology
Occupation(s)	Engineer, business executive
Employer	Honeywell International
Known for	Leading Honeywell International and overseeing its breakup into three companies
Title	Chairman and chief executive officer of Honeywell International
Term	CEO (2023–present); chairman (2024–present)
Predecessor	Darius Adamczyk
Board member of	Honeywell International (chairman); Business Roundtable; U.S.-India CEO Forum
Spouse(s)	Married; name not publicly disclosed
Children	1 daughter

🧭 Vimal Kapur (born 1965) is an Indian-born American engineer and business executive who serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Honeywell International, a diversified industrial and aerospace company based in the United States. A lifelong Honeywell employee, he joined the company’s Indian joint venture as a junior engineer in 1989 and, over more than three decades, rose through sales, project management and business-unit leadership roles to become chief executive in June 2023 and chairman in June 2024. Under his leadership Honeywell has focused on three long-term “megatrends” – automation, the future of aviation and the energy transition – while pursuing a large-scale breakup into three separately listed companies.

🏭 Long Honeywell ascent. Kapur is regarded as a rare example of a Fortune 100 chief executive who has spent his entire career inside one company, working for many years far from its corporate headquarters. Before moving into the top job he ran three of Honeywell’s four major business segments—Honeywell Process Solutions, Honeywell Building Technologies and Performance Materials and Technologies—and then served as president and chief operating officer from 2022, giving him broad exposure to the group’s operations, customers and global footprint. In early 2025 he and the Honeywell board announced plans to split the conglomerate into three focused firms centred on aerospace, automation and advanced materials, a restructuring that followed pressure from activist investors and marked the most sweeping portfolio change in the company’s modern history.

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Early life and education

👶 Indian origins. Kapur was born in India in the mid-1960s and grew up in a middle-class household about which relatively little has been made public. He has described himself as an engineer at heart from an early age, gravitating toward electronics and instrumentation and preferring hands-on problem-solving over abstract theory. Unlike many future global chief executives who pursued elite business-school degrees or early international postings, he spent his formative years entirely in India, building a technical foundation before entering corporate life.

🎓 Engineering training. Kapur studied electronics engineering with a specialization in instrumentation at the Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology in Patiala, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1986. He did not pursue a master’s degree or MBA, an atypical choice for an executive who would later lead a large multinational; instead he entered industry directly and has often pointed to continuous on-the-job learning as his substitute for formal graduate education. This early decision to rely on practical experience rather than academic credentials later became part of his public narrative as a “specialist-turned-generalist” who learned business in the field.

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Career

🛠️ Entry into Honeywell. Kapur joined a Honeywell joint venture in India in 1989 as a junior sales and project engineer, working directly with industrial customers on automation and control projects. Immersed in field installations, commissioning work and troubleshooting, he developed what he later called a high level of empathy for frontline employees and customers who had to live with the consequences of corporate decisions. Over the 1990s he moved from purely technical tasks into broader account-management and project-leadership roles, learning to translate engineering capabilities into commercial outcomes.

🌐 Rise in India and shift abroad. By 2006, after roughly 17 years with the company, Kapur had become managing director of Honeywell Automation India Ltd., responsible for overseeing Honeywell’s operations across the Indian market. Under his leadership the Indian subsidiary expanded and deepened Honeywell’s presence in one of its fastest-growing regions, drawing attention from senior executives in North America and Europe. Seeking broader strategic exposure, he moved in 2010 to the United Kingdom as vice president for global marketing and strategy in Honeywell Process Solutions, shifting from running a country operation to shaping global product and go-to-market plans. He later remarked that adapting to new countries and cultures was “much harder than learning a new business,” but that these moves strengthened his ability to operate in ambiguous environments.

🏭 President of Honeywell Process Solutions. In 2014 Kapur relocated to the United States to become president of Honeywell Process Solutions, a major global business unit supplying industrial automation and control systems, particularly to the oil and gas industry. He took the helm just as oil prices were entering a sharp downturn, which weighed heavily on capital spending by key customers. During his tenure from 2014 to 2018 he oversaw cost reductions, portfolio adjustments and a renewed focus on helping clients improve efficiency, moves that left the business better positioned once the commodity cycle recovered. Company statements credited his leadership with making the unit “an even stronger competitor” emerging from the downturn.

🏢 Honeywell Building Technologies. In 2018 Kapur was appointed president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Building Technologies, one of the conglomerate’s four main segments, and moved to Atlanta to lead it. The period from 2018 to 2021 coincided with rapid technological change in the buildings sector, including the spread of internet-connected sensors, data analytics and “smart building” platforms, followed by the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kapur pushed the division to focus on healthy buildings, remote operations and energy efficiency, and Honeywell reported that Building Technologies gained market share and significantly expanded profit margins under his leadership despite the challenging macroeconomic environment.

🌱 Performance Materials and Technologies. In 2021 Kapur was named president and chief executive of Honeywell’s Performance Materials and Technologies segment, a business exceeding US$10 billion in revenue that includes specialty chemicals, advanced materials and industrial process technologies. Based once more in Houston, he led efforts to reposition the segment around sustainability and the energy transition, launching a new Sustainable Technology Solutions unit focused on lower-carbon fuels, carbon capture and low–global-warming refrigerants. During 2021–2022 the division recorded both top-line and bottom-line growth, and Honeywell highlighted its clean-energy offerings as central to the company’s long-term strategy.

🧑‍💼 President, COO, and CEO. In July 2022 Honeywell’s board promoted Kapur to president and chief operating officer of the entire group, making him the principal deputy to chief executive Darius Adamczyk and bringing him to corporate headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, after decades in field and business-unit roles. He was responsible for day-to-day operations and for cross-company initiatives in digital transformation and sustainability. In March 2023 Honeywell announced that Kapur would become CEO effective 1 June 2023, while Adamczyk would move to the role of executive chairman. Kapur joined the board at the same time and, in June 2024, assumed the additional title of chairman, consolidating his leadership at the head of the conglomerate.

📈 Strategic focus and portfolio moves. As chief executive Kapur articulated a strategy to concentrate Honeywell’s portfolio on three “megatrends”: industrial automation and digitalization, the future of aviation and the energy transition. He reorganized the company’s business groups to align with these themes and championed “Honeywell Accelerator”, an internal operating system aimed at simplifying processes and accelerating innovation. Kapur also pursued active portfolio reshaping, approving the sale of Honeywell’s personal protective equipment business for around US$1.3 billion, the US$4.9 billion acquisition of Carrier Global’s security business and the purchase of a liquefied natural gas technology firm to strengthen offerings in automation and energy-related technologies. In 2024 Honeywell reported record revenue of roughly US$39 billion and operating income of US$7.3 billion, along with an all-time-high order backlog of more than US$35 billion, although the company’s share price modestly underperformed the broader equity market over his first full year as CEO.

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Leadership and management style

🚧 Field-shaped perspective. Kapur’s leadership style is widely described as having been shaped by decades spent in front-line roles and in country operations far from Honeywell’s head office. He has recounted how early years installing and servicing industrial control systems in Indian factories gave him a deep appreciation for the practical consequences of corporate decisions, and he frequently stresses that his “empathy for the problems people face on the front line is very high” because he has experienced those situations personally. Even as chief executive he has continued to spend significant time visiting plants, labs and customer sites around the world, arguing that direct contact with operations is essential for sound decision-making.

🧹 “Chief simplifier”. Having once been, in his words, “on the receiving side of requests from headquarters”, Kapur has cultivated a reputation inside Honeywell as a fierce critic of bureaucracy and needless complexity. He has jokingly described himself as the organisation’s “chief simplifier” and regularly tells employees that “less is good”, advocating a small number of clear priorities over a proliferation of initiatives. As CEO he reduced internal reporting layers, tightened decision rights and promoted leaner, cross-functional teams, efforts that he presents as foundational to both operational agility and long-term growth. The Honeywell Accelerator framework, which codifies common tools and processes across the company, is intended to support this simplification agenda while still encouraging local initiative.

🌏 Global and multicultural outlook. Kapur often frames his leadership through what he calls a “geography lens,” asking how a decision will play out in different countries and cultures before finalising it. Having led businesses in India, Europe and the United States, he is seen as blending elements of Eastern and Western management styles: an emphasis on long-term relationships and cost discipline alongside transparency, rapid execution and shareholder focus. He has also championed diversity and inclusion within Honeywell, supporting efforts to increase the representation of women and under-represented groups in technical and leadership roles and arguing that global, multicultural teams produce better engineering and commercial outcomes.

🗣️ Broader business involvement. Beyond Honeywell, Kapur participates in several business forums. He is a member of the Business Roundtable and the Business Council in the United States, and sits on the U.S.-India CEO Forum, where he contributes to discussions on trade, technology and workforce development between the two countries. He has also been associated with the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council in Honeywell’s headquarter city. In 2025 he wrote an opinion piece in a major business magazine arguing that artificial intelligence is “reimagining work” and calling on corporate leaders to rethink employee training and skills development so that workers can treat AI as a collaborative tool rather than a threat.

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Financials and wealth

💰 Executive compensation. As chief executive of Honeywell, Kapur receives a compensation package broadly in line with that of other Fortune 100 industrial leaders. When he became CEO in 2023 his annual base salary was set at approximately US$1.5 million, but the majority of his pay has come from performance-linked bonuses and equity awards. In 2022, while still a division president, his total compensation was reported at around US$8.4 million; in 2023, his first year as chief executive, it rose to about US$14.4 million, reflecting higher incentive and stock-based grants associated with the top role. Preliminary disclosures for 2024 indicated further growth in total pay, into the high-teens of millions of dollars, as long-term incentive plans vested and new awards were granted.

📊 Equity stake and net worth. Through years of stock-based compensation Kapur has built a personal shareholding in Honeywell that, while small as a percentage of the company, represents substantial wealth. As of early 2025 he was estimated to own roughly 0.006% of Honeywell’s outstanding shares, a stake worth about US$38 million at the company’s market capitalisation of roughly US$136 billion at that time. In addition to these directly held shares he has unvested performance stock units and options that could increase his ownership if Honeywell meets specified financial and strategic targets. His overall net worth is not publicly disclosed in detail, but available estimates generally place it in the tens of millions of dollars, largely tied to Honeywell equity rather than to diversified outside investments.

🧾 Financial profile and capital allocation. Kapur has not been closely associated with high-profile personal investments, major philanthropic endowments or a conspicuous personal lifestyle; colleagues and observers instead describe him as work-focused and relatively understated in his use of wealth. In public communications he has paid more attention to Honeywell’s corporate financial policies than to his own finances, emphasising disciplined capital allocation that balances investment in research and development with shareholder returns through dividends, share buybacks and selective acquisitions. This alignment between his personal wealth—largely in Honeywell stock—and the company’s long-term performance has been highlighted by investors as a mechanism for reinforcing shareholder orientation.

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Personal life

🏠 Family and relocations. Kapur has been married for more than three decades; his wife’s name is not widely publicised, and the couple have one adult daughter. His family accompanied him through multiple international moves, including his relocation from India to Europe and later to the United States in his late forties, transitions he has described as personally and culturally demanding. In interviews he has reflected on the challenge of adjusting to a new country and corporate environment mid-career, observing that “the human mind is not flexible” by default and that such moves required deliberate openness and learning.

👔 Public persona. Those who have worked with Kapur often characterise him as soft-spoken, analytical and approachable rather than flamboyant. He typically dresses conservatively and is known in meetings for taking handwritten notes and asking detailed operational questions, habits that reflect his engineering background. Even after becoming CEO, he has continued to emphasise time spent with operating teams and customers, participating in town-hall meetings and site visits across Honeywell’s global footprint to maintain a sense of the organisation beyond headquarters reports.

🎯 Interests and values. Away from the office Kapur keeps a low media profile, but colleagues have recalled his long-standing enthusiasm for technology, aviation and, from his early years in India, cricket. He has mentored younger professionals throughout his career, typically urging them to “make use of the opportunity and work at the best of your efforts,” a refrain that reflects his pragmatic, performance-oriented philosophy. Within Honeywell he has supported diversity and inclusion programmes and has argued that giving opportunities based on competence rather than pedigree is essential, a stance sometimes linked to his own rise without an elite MBA or early Western education.

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Controversies and challenges

⚖️ Shareholder activism and breakup plan. The most visible test of Kapur’s leadership has come from shareholder activism around Honeywell’s conglomerate structure. In late 2024 Elliott Investment Management, a prominent activist hedge fund, disclosed a stake of more than US$5 billion in Honeywell and argued that the company’s mix of aerospace, automation and materials businesses suffered from “uneven execution, inconsistent financial results and an underperforming share price” relative to its potential. Elliott pressed for a breakup, contending that separate, focused companies would command higher valuations and clearer strategic identities. Rather than resisting outright, Kapur and the board initiated a strategic review of the portfolio, effectively acknowledging the need to reconsider Honeywell’s shape.

🧨 Implementation risks. In February 2025 Honeywell announced plans to separate into three independent, publicly traded companies aligned with its aerospace, automation and advanced materials businesses, a move billed as the largest structural change in the firm’s modern history. Kapur framed the decision as a natural extension of his simplification philosophy, arguing that three focused enterprises would enjoy “tailored growth strategies” and enhanced agility while unlocking value for shareholders and customers. Elliott publicly welcomed the plan as the right course for Honeywell, but analysts have highlighted significant execution risks, including the unwinding of shared systems, the allocation of debt and corporate functions, and the need to sustain employee morale during a complex multi-year separation. The success or failure of the breakup is widely seen as central to Kapur’s long-term legacy.

🌡️ Performance, R&D and ESG questions. Aside from the activism episode, Kapur has faced more routine scrutiny over Honeywell’s growth and innovation performance. Some commentators have pointed out that the company’s revenue growth in the early part of his tenure lagged that of more narrowly focused competitors and have questioned whether Honeywell invested sufficiently in research and development versus financial engineering. Kapur has responded by modestly increasing R&D budgets and highlighting Honeywell’s investment in areas such as quantum computing—through its stake in Quantinuum—and sustainable aviation fuels as evidence of long-term innovation commitments. On environmental, social and governance matters, the company has sought to position itself as a provider of technologies for the energy transition while committing to carbon-neutral operations by 2035, though environmental groups continue to monitor its activities in aerospace and chemicals.

👥 Workforce and culture. Internally, the main challenge under Kapur has been maintaining morale through restructuring and portfolio changes. Honeywell has long been known for a rigorous performance culture, and efforts to simplify structures and prune non-core businesses have created uncertainty in some units even without large headline-grabbing layoffs. Kapur has responded with frequent communications to employees explaining the rationale for changes and stressing the goal of creating more focused, opportunity-rich organisations. Employee-review platforms such as Glassdoor have reported relatively high approval ratings for him—often in the mid- to high-90% range—which suggest that, despite anxieties, many staff view his leadership positively.

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Other information

📚 Long tenure and education profile. Kapur’s career path is notable for its longevity at a single employer and for the absence of elite business-school credentials that often feature in the biographies of global chief executives. He has spent more than 36 years at Honeywell, moving through technical, commercial and leadership roles without leaving the company, which has given him deep institutional knowledge and credibility with long-serving employees. At the same time he is frequently cited as one of the few Indian-origin leaders of large American corporations whose highest formal degree is a bachelor’s in engineering from an Indian institution rather than an MBA from a Western university, a profile that has been highlighted in Indian and diaspora media as an alternative route to high corporate office.

🌐 Indian-origin CEO cohort. Kapur’s appointment as Honeywell’s CEO placed him within a growing cohort of chief executives of Indian origin leading major Western corporations, alongside figures such as Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and Arvind Krishna. Commentators have noted that, unlike many of these peers, he did not emigrate early in life or pursue graduate business education in the United States, instead building his career first in India and other international markets and only moving to the US in mid-career. This trajectory, combining emerging-market experience with later exposure to American capital markets and corporate governance, has been cited as an example of the increasingly global pathways through which business leaders reach top roles.

🔄 Succession and generational context. An unusual aspect of Kapur’s succession is that he and his predecessor, Darius Adamczyk, were born in the same year, 1965, rather than representing different generations. Kapur has recalled initially thinking Adamczyk’s suggestion that he might be the next CEO was a joke for this reason, since chief executives are often succeeded by younger leaders. Analysts have interpreted the decision as a sign that Honeywell’s board valued his field experience and track record of business-unit transformations more than a symbolic generational shift, and viewed him as a change agent despite his similar age and long tenure with the company.

🧠 Ideas on skills and reinvention. In both internal and public remarks Kapur has stressed the need for continuous learning and adaptation in the face of technological and market change. He has argued that in modern industry “there is always a trend which makes your skills obsolete, every five years”, urging professionals to reinvent themselves regularly by adding new capabilities. His own progression—from a specialist engineer in Indian factories to the chief executive overseeing the breakup of a global conglomerate—has often been presented as an illustration of this philosophy, emphasising curiosity, resilience and willingness to tackle unfamiliar roles and geographies.

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