Robert Chapman, chairman of the board for Barry-Wehmiller, who mentored business leaders throughout the world including Wisconsin died March 19.
The company announced his death describing him as a business leader, author, speaker and relentless optimist. He was a speaker at Insight on Business’s Manufacturing First in 2018, had spoken as part of the St. Norbert College CEO breakfast series and was part of other events in Northeast Wisconsin. Businesses such as Oshkosh Corp. implemented the principals Chapman championed as Truly Human Leadership.
Barry-Wehmiller companies located in the Green Bay area include BW Converting, Packaging Innovation Center and Northern Engraving & Machine.
Chapman became CEO of a Barry-Wehmiller in 1975 upon the death of his father, William Chapman. At the time, the company was a $20 million 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 billion-plus business with 12,000 team members and a portfolio spanning industrial and packaging automation, professional services and life sciences technology.
He wrote Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family, coauthored by his friend, Raj Sisodia. It has been translated into eight languages and, in 2025, was re-released in a revised and expanded edition.
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.
Chapman said he would like his eulogy to say: “He genuinely cared for the people whose lives he had the privilege of touching.”
