David M. Cote

David Cote, the oldest of five children, was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on his mother's 19th birthday in 1952. His father, who attended high school for only six months, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After returning home, Cote's father ran a service station and then later bought a small garage.

At first, the family lived in an apartment in a village called Suncook, which was predominately populated with families of French Canadian ancestry. For the first three years of his life, Cote spoke only French. His mother, who at the time had only two days of high school (she later received her high school diploma by going to classes at night) and a two-year secretarial degree, observed that people who spoke English with a French accent did not go very far in their careers. She encouraged her husband to move the family to an English-speaking neighborhood, which he did. From that point on, English was the only language spoken to Cote, and his parents spoke French only to each other when their children were not present.

"There weren't a lot of success stories coming out of my community," he says. "There were few role models. But my parents were determined I would do better than them. My father used to say he didn't care if I dug ditches afterward, but I was going to go to college."

Cote's father worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day, which meant he was unavailable to teach his son things like hunting and fishing. "I taught myself how to do those things," says Cote. "I was a curious kid, and I read a lot. I learned how to tie flies from reading a book. I would read anything put in front of me, including a cereal box."

Cote says his father was driven to ensure that his family was taken care of financially. "My dad offered advice from time to time, but most of what I learned from him was gleaned by just working with him at the garage when I was a little older," he says. "My mother was a sweetheart, but she believed in discipline. She gave me a lot of freedom, but she expected me to show up on time, get my homework done, and not get into any trouble. There were repercussions if I didn't. But both of my parents encouraged independent thinking and leadership."

An example of Cote's mother teaching her son to be independent happened when he was 11. She asked him to take the bus into Manchester, which was 10 miles away, to pay their bills. "She gave me all this money, and I went from store to store paying our bills," he says. "It was up to me to not lose the money and to get receipts. I think I was a little intimidated to do that at first, but once I learned I could do it, I gained self-confidence."

Cote did not spend too much time dreaming about what he wanted to be when he grew up. Because his town was so isolated from the rest of the country, he had few vocations to observe. When he was in grammar school, he thought about becoming a teacher. But by the time he reached his eighth-grade graduation and realized he was only halfway through school, including college, he felt that his life would never begin. "I didn't have a plan, but I wanted to get out of the classroom and get on with my life," he says.

During his senior year of high school, Cote was accepted to the University of New Hampshire (UNH), but that summer he decided he would not go. He worked with his father in his garage and thought about joining the business. "My father didn't like that decision," says Cote, "but at 17 he thought I was old enough to make the choice. But after a couple of months of working full time in the garage, I realized I didn't have the aptitude for it."

Cote then went to Michigan and worked with his uncle as a carpenter's apprentice, yet soon discovered he wasn't skilled with his hands. He returned home and enlisted in the U.S. Navy, but he called the day before being sworn in to decline. He also called UNH to see if his acceptance was still valid. Hearing that it was not, he drove to the school, waited hours to meet with the director of admissions, and finally convinced the director to let him start in the fall rather than waiting until January. "I left his office and never said thank you," says Cote. "Twenty-five years later, I found someone who was able to tell me that admission director's name, and I wrote him a thank-you note. We ended up corresponding with each other over the next 10 years. Before he died, he was given a medal for his lifetime commitment to New Hampshire. I was the keynote speaker at his ceremony and had the chance to publicly thank him. That was really special."

Cote attended UNH and had a few jobs at night, including a stint at Sears and at a General Electric plant. After his sophomore year, he was not allowed to live on campus any longer because he was considered a "general troublemaker." Following his junior year, Cote bought a fishing boat with a friend and spent much of that year fishing off the coast of Maine. He also married at that time, and he and his wife were soon expecting a baby. "That's when I began to panic," he says. "I couldn't even support myself, much less a family. I realized the fishing thing was never going to produce the fortune I hoped it would. I returned to school for my senior year and finally got serious about my studies. I got a 4.0 that year."

After graduating with a business degree in 1976, Cote accepted a salaried position with GE in Lynn, Massachusetts. He worked as an internal auditor and joined the company's financial training program. He spent the next 22-plus years moving up GE's corporate ladder in finance, marketing, and general management positions. His last position at GE was senior vice president of major appliances.

"During the course of my career, my goals changed as I realized I was capable of more," he says. "I had gone from manufacturing to finance and then began wondering if maybe I could be a general manager. It took a number of years for that to happen, and by then I was nearly 40. That's when I began to wonder if I could be a CEO."

In 1999, Cote left GE to serve as chief operating officer at TRW, Inc. One year later, he was named the company's CEO; in 2001, he added the chairmanship to his responsibilities. In 2002, Cote became chairman and CEO of Honeywell, a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader that specializes in energy efficiency, clean energy generation, safety and security, globalization, and customer productivity. Under Cote's guidance, Honeywell has gone from a $22 billion company that had lost money two years in a row to a $40 billion global, highly profitable conglomerate with more than 130,000 employees.

Cote has experienced tremendous success for much of his career, but the failures along his path have taught him some valuable life lessons. Recently, he gave the commencement speech at UNH, sharing with his audience some of those lessons. Specifically, his condensed advice fits into four major areas. "First is to be self-aware," he says. "You can't control the skill set with which you were born, but what you can control are your behaviors, how you look at life, and how you maximize the skills you do have. Be aware of your impact on people around you. Stand for something and have values. Be open to new ideas. And if a decision doesn't seem right, change it!"

Cote's second point: "Get out of your comfort zone. Push yourself. Be willing to take a risk with something new. Learn how to handle rejection and failure. Rather than being discouraged by failure, learn from it."

His third point: "Be results-oriented. The one thing I learned from my fishing boat experience was that hard work does not always pay off. If you are working on the wrong thing, it doesn't matter how hard you work. Being smart is not enough to achieve results. Take responsibility for yourself because you are not entitled to anything. No one is."

Cote's fourth and final point: "Enjoy your life. Discover what you want out of life, and go after it. Remember the significance of family and friends; they are what make life worth living. Don't dwell on what's wrong with your life, and don't hang around with people who do."

Cote measures his success in ways that are personal to him. "I have two terrific sons, and they are the pride of my life," he says. "Professionally, my accomplishments have given me an interesting life. I remember, when I was a kid, reading about places all over the world I thought then I would never see. Now it is remarkable for me to realize I've been to more than 100 countries. I've taken some risks in my life, and they didn't all work out, but I'm happy to say I have no regrets."

In 2009, President Barack Obama named Cote co-chair of the U.S.-India CEO Forum, which he had served on since July 2005. In 2010, the president appointed him to the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, also known as the Simpson-Bowles Commission. In 2011, he was named vice chair of the Business Roundtable, and later became chair of its Energy and Environment Committee. In 2012 and 2013, Cote served as a founding member of the steering committee of the Campaign to Fix Debt, a bipartisan effort to build support for a comprehensive U.S. debt reduction plan.

In 2014, Cote was named Institutional Investor magazine's Best CEO in the Capital Goods/Industrials: Electrical Equipment & Multi-Industry category. In 2013, Chief Executive named him CEO of the Year, Barron's recognized Cote as one of the World's Best CEOs, and StemConnectors.org listed him as one of the 100 CEO Leaders in STEM.

In recent years, he has also been honored by the American Australian Association, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the TechAmerica Foundation. In 2012, he was given the Asia Society's Global Leadership Award. He also won the Peter G. Peterson Business Statesmanship Award. In 2011, B'nai B'rith International presented Cote with a Distinguished Achievement Award, and in 2007, the Foreign Policy Association gave him its Corporate Social Responsibility Award.

In 2011, UNH presented Cote with an honorary doctorate of humane letters. In 2009, Cote was made an honorary professor at the Beihang University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Beijing, China. In 2001, he received an honorary law degree from Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management.

Since Cote became chairman and CEO of Honeywell, its philanthropic approach has changed significantly. Honeywell Hometown Solutions has won more than 80 awards for effectiveness. The company focuses on middle school math and science education, disaster relief, family safety, rebuilding homes, and environmental education.

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