Core Summary

  • Deere & Co. CFO Josh Jepsen will leave the farm and construction equipment maker to become the finance chief of Honeywell International's aerospace business spinoff. Honeywell said in a press release Thursday that the new company will be one of the largest pure-play aerospace and defense publicly traded companies in the world.
  • Honeywell, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, said Jepsen will officially join Honeywell Aerospace on February 23. The new entity will become an independent publicly traded company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with the spinoff expected to be completed in the second half of 2025.
  • Honeywell also appointed three senior executives to the new company's leadership team. Honeywell Aerospace CEO Jim Currier said in the press release: "These appointments lay the foundation for Honeywell Aerospace's long-term success as we move toward creating an independent company that plays a key role in the aerospace and defense industry."

In-Depth Analysis

Jepsen leaves Deere at a time when the U.S. farm equipment maker is facing margin pressure from tariffs. The Wall Street Journal reported that Deere is challenged by both U.S. tariffs on imported components and retaliatory tariffs from other countries.

In the fiscal year ended November 2, Deere reported in November that net income fell 29% year-over-year to $5.02 billion, compared with $7.1 billion in the prior year. Meanwhile, its fourth-quarter net income decline narrowed to 14%, dropping from $1.3 billion to $1.1 billion, according to related securities filings. The company also forecast net income for fiscal 2026 to decline further to a range of $4 billion to $4.75 billion.

"Although management has effectively judged the bottom of the agricultural cycle in 2026, the company still expects core precision agriculture revenue to continue declining due to persistent weakness in the North American market. This appears more pessimistic than comments from peers," Morningstar analysts wrote in a November 26 research note.

During the November earnings call, Jepsen emphasized that the company's efforts to improve profitability supported performance during difficult times. "Despite the North American large agriculture industry declining about 30% this year, we still achieved margins more than 450 basis points higher than in 2016 (the last time we were at this point in the cycle)," Jepsen said in the call transcript. "Excluding tariff headwinds, the improvement would exceed 600 basis points."

Until Deere finds a permanent CFO, the company has appointed Ryan D. Campbell as interim finance chief, effective February 19, according to related Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Campbell, 51, previously served as Deere's finance chief from March 2019 to May 2022 and has been president of Global Construction & Forestry and Power Systems since May 2022.

According to Jepsen's LinkedIn profile, he has worked at Deere for nearly 18 years. His recent roles include deputy CFO, director of investor relations, and regional finance director for sub-Saharan Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and China. Earlier in his career, he also served as an internal auditor. He holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree in accounting and Spanish from the University of Northern Iowa.

Honeywell's appointed executives for the spinoff company include: Bob Buddecke as CEO of Electronic Solutions, Dave Marinick as CEO of Engines and Power Systems, and Rich DeGraff as CEO of Control Systems.