Barry-Wehmiller chairman Bob Chapman dies

Robert H. Chapman, Barry-Wehmiller's chairman of the board, died on March 19.

Bob Chapman was a business leader, author and speaker, as well as an 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 a great responsibility because leadership impacts the way people live. He worked 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 Chapman became CEO of Barry-Wehmiller in 1975 upon the death of his father, William Chapman. At the time, the company was a 20 million USD supplier of equipment for the brewing industry. As of 2025, when Bob Chapman handed the reins of the business to his son Kyle, the current president and CEO, Barry-Wehmiller had become a 3.6 billion-plus USD global enterprise with 12,000 team members and a portfolio spanning industrial and packaging automation, professional services and life sciences technology.

In the late 1990s into the 2000s, Bob Chapman 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 Chapman championed were the inspiration behind his 2015 Wall Street Journal best-seller "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 Chapman’s views on leadership have been featured internationally in hundreds of media outlets such as CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, 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 Chapman and his wife, Cynthia, launched a nonprofit, Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, to bring Barry-Wehmiller’s communication training to communities. In 2015, he founded Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute to bring the principles of Truly Human Leadership to for-profit organizations through culture transformation and leadership training.

Bob Chapman’s and Barry-Wehmiller’s approach to business was featured in a 2016 case study by Harvard Business School. His business approach is now taught at more than 70 business schools around the world.

In 2019, he was invited to address the United Nations Global Compact Transforming Education Summit.

Bob Chapman was named the Tharseō CEO of the Year by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in 2022. Inc Magazine ranked him as the no. 3 CEO in the world and in 2025 listed him as a Top 50 Leadership and Management Experts. 

Bob Chapman 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 of the people who built them.