Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur is a Champion for Change

With a strong commitment to supporting women's advancement, Honeywell Chief Executive Officer Vimal Kapur is a CEO Champion For Change - an initiative hosted by global nonprofit Catalyst that supports CEOs and companies in building workplaces that work for women

Advancing women to all levels of leadership

Since 2017, more than 80 CEOs have become Catalyst CEO Champions For Change by pledging to advance more women into all levels of leadership. "We must accelerate change. Because progress for women is progress for everyone," attests Catalyst.

The CEOs come together to accelerate and advance women, particularly women from marginalized ethnic and racial groups, into senior leadership and board positions.

According to Catalyst, women represent about 50 per cent of the world’s population. Their contributions to the global economy are significant: countries with at least half of their population of women participating in the labor force contribute 62 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP). Yet women’s representation in business leadership remains staggeringly low. Only about 5 per cent of Fortune Global 500 companies are run by women CEOs. In the United States, women hold just 27 per cent of board seats in the Fortune 500 and 32 per cent of board seats in the S&P 500. For women from marginalized racial and ethnic groups, the numbers are even more dismal. We have to change that. Because progress for women is progress for everyone. That’s why on International Women’s Day 2017, Catalyst launched CEO Champions For Change.

Today, the group includes more than 80 high-profile CEOs whose companies represent more than 11 million employees and over $3 trillion in revenue globally.

These leaders are drawing a line in the sand and publicly pledging to advance more women, particularly women of color, into senior leadership positions and onto their boards. And they are sharing their data on women’s advancement, so Catalyst can collectively measure and report progress.

Accelerating diversity, inclusion and equity

As senior leaders, CEO Champions For Change leaders hold themselves and their teams accountable to make change happen and accelerate diversity, inclusion, and equity of opportunity within their organizations.

To that end, the CEOs commit to continuing to strengthen the diversity and inclusion metrics, policies, and practices across its organizations. CEO Champions For Change commits to reviewing and improving the pipeline of women of diverse backgrounds for advancement and empowering them with a strong support system. It commits to identifying and working to reduce any structural barriers or unconscious bias that may exist and to doing everything it can to continue to build an inclusive workplace culture.

CEO Champions For Change drive these actions with Catalyst as a global thought leader and partner in advancing women through workplace inclusion. And, in partnership with Catalyst, the CEOs publicly report on collective progress, to gorge continued learning, improvement, and acceleration of change and inclusive prosperity for everyone.

Enhancing innovation and driving value

As Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell, Vimal Kapur is focused on enhancing innovation to continue delivering strong financial results, optimizing company operations to drive value, aligning the portfolio to megatrends including maintaining a leadership position in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), and developing the nearly 100,000 Futureshapers that work at Honeywell every day across more than 80 countries. He also serves on the company’s Board of Directors.

Prior to becoming CEO, Vimal was President and Chief Operating Officer of Honeywell. Vimal previously served as President and CEO of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies from 2021 to 2022 and President and CEO of Honeywell Building Technologies (HBT) 2018 to 2021. Before his HBT leadership role, he served as President of Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS).

Before his leadership roles, Vimal worked as the VP of Global Marketing and Strategy for HPS and the General Manager of the Advanced Solutions business within HPS. He started his career at a Honeywell Joint Venture in 1989 and eventually became the Managing Director of Honeywell Automation India Ltd in 2006. Vimal graduated from Thapar Institute of Engineering in Patiala in India, as an electronics engineer with a specialization in instrumentation.

Over his more than three-decade career at Honeywell, Vimal has established deep knowledge of Honeywell’s businesses, end markets, and customer needs as well as a deep connection to the company’s Futureshapers.