About Bob Chapman

Business leader, author, speaker, optimist

Recognized in 2025 as a Top 50 Leadership and Management Expert by Inc., Bob Chapman became the senior executive of Barry-Wehmiller in 1975 at age 30 when the 90-year-old business had $20 million in revenue, outdated technology and a very weak financial position. Despite the obstacles, Bob applied a unique blend of strategy to grow the company through acquisition, creating a sustainable business model not susceptible to the whims of any one industry.

Alongside tremendous growth in his business, a series of realizations led Bob away from traditional management practices to Truly Human Leadership^® —a people-centric approach where his team members feel valued, cared for and integral to the company’s purpose. At Barry-Wehmiller, they have a unique measure of success: by the way they touch the lives of people.

Bob’s experiences and the transformation he championed were the inspiration behind his 2015 WSJ bestseller, Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. The book was coauthored by Raj Sisodia, founder and co-author of Conscious Capitalism. It has been translated into eight languages and in 2025 was re-released in a revised and expanded edition with 90 additional pages of insights. In 2016, Barry-Wehmiller’s unique approach to business was featured in a case study by Harvard Business School, which is now taught at 70+ business schools around the world. Meanwhile, the company has evolved and grown from $1.7 billion in annual revenue with 100 acquisitions when the original book was published to $4 billion with more than 150 acquisitions in 2026.

In 2013, Bob and his wife Cynthia launched a nonprofit, Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, to bring the Barry-Wehmiller’s groundbreaking Listen Like a Leader training to communities. And, in 2015, the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute was founded to bring the principles of Truly Human Leadership^® to for-profit organizations through culture transformation and leadership training. Throughout the 2020's, Bob prioritized teaching caring leadership to tomorrow’s leaders through programs in a growing number of universities, work that continues through Barry-Wehmiller's outreach program.

In 2022, Bob was named the Tharseō CEO of the Year by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). He was ranked as the #3 CEO in the world in an Inc. article, and a Top 10 Social Capital CEO by International Business Times.

After 50 years as CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, in 2025, Kyle Chapman, Bob’s son, was named CEO of the company. while Bob remained Chairman of the Board and majority shareholder.

Bob died on March 19, 2026 after a years long battle with leukemia. He continued his work to the very end. In the last six months of his life, Bob gave more than 50 interviews promoting the expanded and revised edition of Everybody Matters. Among them, an appearance on his friend Simon Sinek's "A Bit of Optimism" podcast and an interview for CBS Sunday Morning.

Three months after Bob's passing, Kyle Chapman was elected Chairman of the Board of Barry-Wehmiller, fully stepping into the role his father previously held. At that time, when asked if the torch had been passed, Kyle said: "It’s a huge mantle. But it's not just on me; it's on everyone that's been touched by him. That's what he wanted. That was his intention — that we would each take a little bit of his message and spread it around the world, and as that gains momentum, the impact is going to be even bigger." 

And so, Bob's legacy will continue on. Through the company he stewarded for 50 years, Barry-Wehmiller, as an example of what’s possible at the intersection of great business strategy and profound care for people. But also through the many people who read his words or listened to him speak, knowing in their hearts that there was a better way of leadership. Knowing that business could be a force for good if its leaders understood that caring for people and giving them meaning, purpose and fulfillment through their work is not in disharmony with creating value.

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.

View Bob's Memorial Page