John Rudolph tapped to lead Honeywell Process Solutions

“Digital transformation has to be about more than just moving data into the cloud.” John Rudolph, new president of Honeywell Process Solutions, is committed to delivering measurable outcomes on behalf of its customers.

This week’s Honeywell Users Group Americas comes on the heels of John Rudolph being named president of Honeywell Process Solutions. With only a couple of weeks under his belt in the new role, the HUG main stage provided a timely opportunity for Rudolph to re-introduce himself to the HPS user community, and share his vision for the future of the company.

“In preparing for this talk, I was reminded of a quote attributed to Steve Jobs of Apple,” began Rudloph. “He said, ‘Don’t hire smart people and tell them what to do.’ I’d qualify that statement by adding that even smart people need data, and they need an aggregation of experience in order to make the informed decisions. And that’s what Honeywell Connected Plant is all about.”

Rudolph was named president of HPS on May 31, 2018, succeeding Vimal Kapur, who was named president and CEO of Honeywell Building Technologies. Rudolph has led the Projects and Automation Solutions business for HPS over the past year, driving significant income growth. Previously, he led the Lifecycle Solutions and Services business for five years, where he commercialized Assurance 360, the industry's first launch of a true outcome-based contract; launched the rapidly growing Cyber Security business; and introduced an array of e-commerce tools to better serve customers and expand revenues. Before joining Honeywell, Rudolph held leadership roles with TAS Energy, General Electric and Ingersoll Rand.

Rudloph’s no-nonsense demeanor, together with his experience in pioneering new business models and growing the company’s digital services business, make him an inspired choice to lead a new Honeywell Process Solutions forward into the digital age.

“Digital transformation has to be about more than just moving data into the cloud,” Rudolph said. “It ultimately has to be about the outcomes, including driving increased productivity and savings for our customers while allowing them to increase knowledge capture, knowledge sharing and knowledge retention among their employees.”

He shared some of the lessons he’s learned from years spent visiting customer sites and implementing new technologies. He’s particularly passionate about the need for organizations to always question the way things are done, and investigate new processes continually. He also encouraged HUG attendees to embrace digitalization now. “The cost of delay is real,” he added. “What if you don’t update your technologies or change your processes, and your competitors do?”

“Going forward, I want to change the norm,” Rudolph added. “I want to share risk and reward, and I want to be challenged. Share your objectives with us—on safety on yield, on energy, on the environment—and we’ll partner with you to achieve them.”

“Honeywell Process Solutions is not just a DCS company, we’re an enterprise optimization company,” he concluded. “We are Honeywell Process Solutions and we are connected.”