One night in October 1975, I had dinner with my parents at a local restaurant in St. Louis, MO.
I had been part of Barry-Wehmiller for six years at that point, upon invitation of my father, who wanted to bring “someone he could trust” into the business. The company was struggling.
My father felt deeply betrayed when he learned that other officers were secretly trying to find someone to buy Barry-Wehmiller. He went as far as to go through the mail in the mailroom every morning, looking for evidence of disloyalty. When my father asked me to come work with him, he had no idea what role I would play in the company. He just wanted to trust someone.
Due to my lack of a defined role and my innate curiosity, I was asked to solve issues in different parts of the business. I worked in customer service, engineering, and finance and I ran certain parts of the business. It was a crash course in business leadership. I learned firsthand how the various business functions create value and how they are interdependent. My father continued to give me more responsibilities, and I quickly gained confidence as a leader. My enthusiasm and accomplishments gave my dad comfort and a deep sense of fatherly pride.
At that dinner in 1975, Dad was in a good mood and he to me, “Bob, I’ve decided to make you executive vice president. You’re already kind of running the company, and your title should reflect that.”
I wasn’t surprised or overwhelmed by this. What my father did that night was acknowledge what we both knew; it was the logical next step. He was proud of how I had embraced responsibility and excelled in each of my roles in Barry-Wehmiller. By then, I was feeling fairly good about what I had been able to accomplish in this struggling company.
My parents were leaving the next morning to visit our joint-venture operation in Australia. Before leaving for the airport, my mom asked my father to drop something off at the home of a friend from church. But as soon as he reached their house, my father had a heart attack and collapsed and died. He was only sixty years old.
Dad never had the opportunity to officially name me executive vice president.
Instead, I was thrust into his role as CEO and Chairman of the Board immediately. In charge of a business with revenues of around $18 million, two or three million dollars of debt, and negative operating income of $477,000. It employed just under four hundred people, with three unions in the production and engineering areas. And a month later, devastated from the loss of my father and still finding my feet as CEO, the loan officer from our bank came by to tell me, “With your dad passing away, we’re going to have to ask you to repay our loan.”
The Barry-Wehmiller of today stands as a testament to transformation and perseverance. It is a far cry from the struggling company I inherited from my father, and even from the organization it was in the 1990s, the 2000s, or in 2015 when my book, Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family, was first published. Over the years, we have evolved significantly, adapting to new challenges and opportunities while staying true to our Guiding Principles of Leadership, which are our True North.
Barry-Wehmiller has evolved and will continue to evolve. And much of our success in the last 20 years is due to the leadership of my son, Kyle Chapman.
Kyle’s influence in our company began when he joined our organization in 2008, starting BW Forsyth Partners with his colleague Ryan Gable. BW Forsyth Partners, our “hybrid-equity” arm of the business, is now a more than $850 million part of the overall organization, diversifying our company’s reach into infrastructure, life sciences, insurance services, leadership consulting and family office consulting.
In 2020, our board came to me and suggested that Kyle be named President of Barry-Wehmiller, after being part of our senior leadership team and serving as interim CFO. I wholeheartedly agreed. And the growth we’ve experienced in the last five years has been nothing short of remarkable.
Again, at the time I inherited the mantle of leadership of the company, we were an $18 million business. When Kyle joined the company, before BW Forsyth Partners was established, we were an $900 million business. Ten years ago, our company generated $1.7 billion in annual revenue and had completed nearly 100 acquisitions. Today, we’re a $3.6+ billion company with more than 140 acquisitions. And 2025 will be another record year for Barry-Wehmiller and 2026 looks equally encouraging.
At the time Kyle was named president, he wrote me a touching email, which I have framed and placed on my office wall:
Recently, I wanted to do something that my father never had the opportunity to do, name Kyle CEO of Barry-Wehmiller. Like my father said to me, he’s already kind of running the company, and his title should reflect that.
I wanted to make sure that Kyle knew that it was my decision, that it was his time. He’s earned it. I'm very proud that I got a chance to recognize Kyle and what he’s achieved and what he means to the future of this legacy that we have the privilege of being a part of.
It's not that I'm going to step back or anything. It's just that Kyle has been performing the duties of CEO of the company and he should have that title. I'm still the largest shareholder and still Chairman of the Board.
Since Kyle was named President five years ago, I’ve been more and more involved in spreading the message that is the blessing we have received, the message of Truly Human Leadership. I’ve been more involved in giving speeches globally, giving interviews and working on the new edition of Everybody Matters. I’ve been working with our outreach team to transform business education.
I always say you can quit a job, but you can't quit a calling. And I will continue to work on spreading the message I have been blessed with for a very long time.
Kyle and I both know our primary responsibility is to make sure the people in our span of care feel safe and valued and that they have a future. And I think Kyle has added dramatically to that. We have a chance to continue to work together as father and son, as two stewards of these 12,000 plus people showing the world that you can create human and economic value in harmony. Our partnership in this is my greatest joy in the world.
In Kyle, I see not only the future of Barry-Wehmiller but also the future of business itself—a future where leaders prioritize humanity as much as profitability, where care and compassion are as integral to decision-making as strategy and execution. As he steps fully into this role, I know that our legacy is secure, and I feel an immense sense of hope for what lies ahead.
To close, I’d like to share some things Kyle said for the new edition of Everybody Matters. I think it reinforces the notion that Barry-Wehmiller is in good hands and our legacy of leadership will go on:
Ultimately, I want Barry-Wehmiller to be a source of inspiration— undeniable proof that businesses can achieve sustained, elite performance without sacrificing their humanity.
My goal isn’t just to preserve my dad’s legacy—it’s to elevate it. I believe I’ve strengthened it by sharpening our focus on winning, but doing so the right way—in a human-centered way.
The future I envision for Barry-Wehmiller is one where we are not only a top-performing company but also the global standard-bearer for Truly Human Leadership. I want us to prove—beyond a doubt—that people and performance are not competing priorities but mutually reinforcing forces. My commitment is to build on my dad’s legacy by demonstrating that a company can achieve extraordinary financial strength without ever compromising its commitment to people. We will show the world that it is possible to be both a model of human-centered leadership and a top-quartile performer.
The next chapter of Barry-Wehmiller will be about more than just growth—it will be about redefining the very essence of business leadership. We will set a new standard, proving that Truly Human Leadership isn’t just the right thing to do; it is the key to sustained excellence. This is the future we are building, and it is the future I am honored to lead.
More than 20 years ago, one of our team members asked me about my greatest fear. That question brought forth a concern that the vision carrying forward our culture of Truly Human Leadership would die with me. I can safely say that with Kyle in his role as CEO and his proven commitment to performance driven by a robust business model and fueled by our culture of care, our company and its culture are in good hands. Combine that with the hundreds of “disciples” we have around the world that will carry this message forward to show the world it is possible, I feel secure that the ideas of Truly Human Leadership will live on.