It is with sadness that Barry-Wehmiller has confirmed the death of its Chairman of the Board, Robert H. Chapman.
Bob was more than a business leader, author and speaker, he was a relentless optimist who dedicated his life to building a better world. He worked to redefine what it meant to be a leader in business, to further the understanding that it was an awesome responsibility because the way we lead impacts the way people live. He worked tirelessly to bring more caring to business and built the foundation for Barry-Wehmiller to champion new definitions for success in business: by demonstrating that economic growth and human vibrancy can exist in harmony.
Bob became CEO of a struggling Barry-Wehmiller in 1975 upon the death of his father, William Chapman. At the time, the company was a $20m supplier of equipment for the brewing industry. As of 2025, when Bob handed the reins of the business to his son Kyle, the current President and CEO, Barry-Wehmiller had become a $3.6 bn global powerhouse with 12,000 team members and a portfolio spanning industrial and packaging automation, professional services and life sciences technology.
Beyond his business acumen, in the late 1990s into the 2000s, Bob underwent a personal transformation that changed his thinking from that of traditional “management” to what would later be called Truly Human Leadership. He then spent the last 15 years of his life sharing the lessons of his transformation by writing prolifically and speaking to audiences around the world.
Those experiences and the principles Bob championed were the inspiration behind his 2015 Wall Street Journal bestseller Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family, coauthored by his friend, Raj Sisodia, founder and coauthor of Conscious Capitalism. Since its release, the book has been translated into eight languages and, in 2025, was re-released in a revised and expanded edition, chronicling more of the evolution of his thinking and the company he led.
Bob’s views on leadership have been featured internationally in hundreds of media outlets such as CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Inc., Harvard Business Review, The St. Louis Business Journal, Chief Executive, The CEO Magazine and many more. His 2012 TEDx talk has been viewed more than 300,000 times.
In 2013, Bob and his wife Cynthia launched a nonprofit, Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, to bring Barry-Wehmiller’s groundbreaking communication training to communities. And, in 2015, Bob founded Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute to bring the principles of Truly Human Leadership to for-profit organizations through culture transformation and leadership training.
Bob’s and Barry-Wehmiller’s approach to business was featured in a 2016 case study by Harvard Business School, which is now taught at 70-plus business schools around the world. In 2019, he was invited to address the United Nations Global Compact Transforming Education Summit.
Bob once answered a question of what he would want his eulogy to say with: “He genuinely cared for the people whose lives he had the privilege of touching.” He often said he would not go to his grave proud of the equipment built or services provided at Barry-Wehmiller but, instead, the people who built them.
