David M. Cote

David M. Cote is the chairman and CEO of Honeywell, with an annual compensation of $25.3 million in 2011, and a former member of the Simpson-Bowles Commission (on its tax working group).

Ties to Pete Peterson's "Fix the Debt"
The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem."

Cote is on the steering committee of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. In fact, he is perhaps the most prominent public corporate face of Fix the Debt, a ubiquitous presence in TV coverage of the campaign and in kicking off its media blitz with the likes of Jeff Immelt of GE (Cote was at GE for 25 years) and Larry Fink of BlackRock.

This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's investigation of Pete Peterson's Campaign to "Fix the Debt." Please visit our main SourceWatch page on Fix the Debt.

Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest
Cote, a Republican, is a co-chair of the U.S.-India CEO Forum, sits on the board of JPMorgan Chase (with annual compensation of $245,000 in 2011 ), and is a senior advisor to KKR (formerly Kohlberg Kravis Roberts), the third largest private equity firm in the world, with $66 billion in assets under management.

The Institute for Policy Studies has estimated that Cote’s personal savings from the Bush tax cuts are $2,529,490.

Honeywell
Cote is chairman and CEO of Honeywell.

Honeywell, a significant military contractor, spent $2.1 million on lobbying Congress and the Treasury Department in the third quarter of 2012 alone, including on “issues related to corporate tax reform, international taxation and repatriation.” Honeywell has also come under fire for its labor practices. Honeywell employees donated $5,908,226 to candidates in the 2012 election cycle, 61% of it going to Republicans.

David Cote "is chairman and CEO of Honeywell, a diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; turbochargers; and specialty materials. He was first elected president, CEO, and a member of the Board of Honeywell in February 2002. He was named chairman of the Board of Directors on July 1, 2002.

"Cote came to Honeywell from TRW, a $16 billion products and services provider for the automotive, aerospace, and information technology markets, where he joined as president in 1999. He was subsequently named CEO in 2001 and chairman in 2002. Cote joined TRW from General Electric, where he served 25 years, progressing through a series of positions in manufacturing, finance, marketing, strategic planning, and general management. He was appointed to his last position at GE – corporate senior vice president and president and CEO of GE Appliances – in 1996.


 * Director, JP Morgan Chase
 * Senior Advisors Group, KKR

Background
"Cote is a 1976 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. He is one of 10 U.S. CEOs invited to serve on the U.S.-India CEO Forum established by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005. Cote was recognized by the Foreign Policy Association in 2007 with its Corporate Social Responsibility Award for the company’s Honeywell Hometown Solutions program."

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