Lawrence A. Bossidy was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1935 and has a twin brother, Tom Bossidy. Larry worked at the family shoe store growing up, had dreams of being a big league baseball pitcher, and once had a summer job of pitching baseball for a college league team in Quebec, Canada. When Bossidy was a senior in high school, a scout offered Bossidy a $40,000 contract to pitch for the Detroit Tigers. However, when the scout came to Bossidy's house with a check, Bossidy's mother wouldn't let him into the house, insisting that Bossidy finish his studies at Colgate.
Bossidy graduated from Colgate University in 1957 with a BA in economics. He was a member of the Mu Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Colgate. Bossidy was later conferred a doctorate of Humane Letters from Colgate
Larry served as Chairman and CEO of AlliedSignal from 1991 to 1999, when he became Chairman of Honeywell following the historic merger of AlliedSignal and Honeywell in December, 1999. He retired from the company in April 2000. He returned on July 3, 2001, as Chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc., following General Electric's prolonged and unsuccessful attempt to acquire Honeywell. Larry's second term focused on stabilizing the company by reinvigorating its core management processes and improving its operations and cost structures through the execution of comprehensive Six Sigma- and Digitization-based productivity initiatives.
Larry Bossidy is also credited with transforming AlliedSignal in the 1990s into one of the world's most admired companies, whose success was largely driven by an intense focus on growth and Six Sigma-driven productivity. During his tenure with AlliedSignal the company achieved consistent growth in earnings and cash flow, highlighted by 31 consecutive quarters of earnings-per-share growth of 13% or more.
Before joining AlliedSignal, Mr. Lawrence A. Bossidy served in a number of executive and financial positions with General Electric Company, which he joined as a trainee in 1957. He was Chief Operating Officer of General Electric Credit Corporation (now GE Capital Corporation) from 1979 to 1981, Executive Vice President and President of GE's Services and Materials Sector from 1981 to 1984, and Vice Chairman and Executive Officer of General Electric Company from 1984 to July 1991.
He and his wife Nancy (married since 1956) have six daughters and three sons and thirty grandchildren and are currently residents of Ridgefield, Connecticut and have a winter home in Palm Beach, Florida.