Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automation, and energy and sustainability solutions (ESS).[2] Honeywell also owns and operates Sandia National Laboratories under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. Honeywell is a Fortune 500 company, ranked 115th in 2023.[3] In 2025, the corporation had a global workforce of approximately 101,000 employees.[1][4] As of 2025, its chairman and chief executive officer was Vimal Kapur.[5]
The corporation's name, Honeywell International Inc., is a product of the merger of Honeywell Inc. and AlliedSignal in 1999. The corporation headquarters were consolidated with AlliedSignal's headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey. The combined company chose the name "Honeywell" because of the considerable brand recognition.[6] Honeywell was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index from 1999 to 2008. Prior to 1999, its corporate predecessors were included dating back to 1925, including early entrants in the computing and thermostat industries.[7][8]
In 2020, Honeywell rejoined the Dow Jones Industrial Average index.[9] In 2021, it moved its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq.[10]
In 2025, Honeywell announced it would split into three companies: Honeywell Automation, Honeywell Aerospace, and Solstice Advanced Materials. It has been estimated that the aerospace and automation businesses could be worth as much as $104 billion and $94 billion, respectively, after the split.[11]
History
The Butz Thermo-Electric Regulator Company was founded in 1885 when the Swiss-born Albert Butz invented the damper-flapper, a thermostat used to control coal furnaces, bringing automated heating system regulation into homes.[12] In 1888, after a falling out with his investors, Butz left the company and transferred the patents to the legal firm Paul, Sanford, and Merwin, who renamed the company the Consolidated Temperature Controlling Company.[12]
As the years passed, CTCC struggled with debt and the company underwent several name changes. After it was renamed the Electric Heat Regulator Company in 1893, W. R. Sweatt, a stockholder in the company, was sold "an extensive list of patents" and named secretary-treasurer. By 1900, Sweatt had bought out the remaining shares of the company from the other stockholders.[13]
1906 Honeywell Heating Specialty Company founded
In 1906, Mark Honeywell founded the Honeywell Heating Specialty Company in
Business groups
The company operates four business groups – Honeywell Aerospace Technologies, Building Automation, Safety and Productivity Solutions (SPS), and Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT).[69][97] Business units within the company are as follows:[98][99]
Honeywell Aerospace Technologies provides avionics, aircraft engines, flight management systems, and service solutions to manufacturers, airlines, airport operations, militaries, and space programs. It comprises Commercial Aviation, Defense & Space, and Business & General Aviation.[100][101][102]
Corporate governance
Honeywell's current chief executive officer is Vimal Kapur.[112][113] As of June 2023, the members of the board are:[114]
Acquisitions since 2002
Honeywell's acquisitions have consisted largely of businesses aligned with the company's existing technologies. The acquired companies are integrated into one of Honeywell's five business groups (Aerospace Technologies (AT), Building Automation (BA), Safety and Productivity Solutions (SPS), Energy and Sustainability Solutions (ESS), or Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT)) but retain their original brand name.
Environmental issues
The United States Environmental Protection Agency states that no corporation has been linked to a greater number of Superfund toxic waste sites than Honeywell.[199] In 2007, Honeywell ranked 44th in a list of US corporations most responsible for air pollution, releasing more than 4.25 million kg (9.4 million pounds) of toxins per year into the air.[200] In 2001, Honeywell agreed to pay $150,000 in civil penalties and to perform $772,000 worth of reparations for environmental violations involving:[201]
In 2003, a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, ordered the company to perform an estimated $400 million environmental remediation of chromium waste, citing "a substantial risk of imminent damage to public health and safety and imminent and severe damage to the environment."[202] In 2003, Honeywell paid $3.6 million to avoid a federal trial regarding its responsibility for trichloroethylene contamination in Lisle, Illinois.[203]
Criticism
On March 10, 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that Honeywell was one of sixty companies that shielded annual profits from U.S. taxes.[212] In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Honeywell International for spending $18.3 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008–2010, instead getting $34 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $4.9 billion, laying off 968 workers since 2008, and increasing executive pay by 15% to $54.2 million in 2010 for its top five executives.[213]
Honeywell has also been criticized in the past for its manufacture of deadly and maiming weapons, such as cluster bombs.[214]
Allegations of involvement in Gaza
In June 2024, investigative reports from various sources alleged that Honeywell's manufactured components were used in a missile that targeted a school in Gaza.
Leadership
Presidents and chairmen of the company have been:[218]
President
- 1) Mark Charles Honeywell, 1927–1934
- 2) Harold Wilson Sweatt, 1934–1952
- 3) Paul Barclay Wishart, 1952–1960
- 4) James Henry Binger, 1960–1965
- 5) Stephen Flaherty Keating, 1965–1974
- 6) Edson White Spencer, 1974–1978
- 7) James Joseph Renier, 1986–1988
- 8) David Larry Moore, 1993–1997
- 9) Giannantonio Ferrari, 1997–2000
See also
- List of Honeywell products and services
- Top 100 US Federal Contractors
Explanatory notes
External links
References
- Honeywell International Inc. 2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, February 17, 2026^
- About Us Honeywell, retrieved March 2, 2020^
- Honeywell International Fortune, retrieved 2023-07-12