Jack Welch fired him from GE. He became a Fortune 500 CEO 3 years later

David Cote's career journey included a setback when Jack Welch wanted him out of GE, but three years later, Cote became CEO of Honeywell. After retiring, he joined Goldman Sachs to acquire Vertiv; despite initial struggles caused by COVID and pricing issues, cote guided Vertiv as demand from AI data centers took off. This trajectory demonstrates that defining setbacks can prove temporary.