From Fired to Fortune: David Cote's Unlikely Rise to Success

David Cote's career trajectory is a testament to perseverance and resilience. After being fired by Jack Welch from General Electric (GE) in 1999, Cote went on to become the CEO of Honeywell just three years later, where he spent 15 years delivering shareholder returns 150% greater than the S&P 500.

Cote's success at Honeywell led him to retire in 2018, but he didn't stay retired for long. He teamed up with Goldman Sachs to hunt for a new company to acquire, eventually choosing Vertiv, an 80-year-old cooling company that had struggled since going public.

Initially, Cote's plan to position Vertiv in the growing market of digital data centers seemed prescient, but COVID-19 hit just three weeks after the company's NYSE debut, causing profits to crater and the stock to fall 55% from its previous high.

Cote took on a more hands-on role at Vertiv, helping the company invest in direct-to-chip liquid cooling technology and acquire CoolTera, a cooling startup. The move paid off as demand for AI data centers surged, allowing Vertiv to ramp up production and recover from its early struggles.