As Barry-Wehmiller’s Chief People Officer, Rhonda Spencer has the privilege of leading a team of professionals whose central role is fostering the organization’s vision of measuring success by the way it touches the lives of people. Her team focuses on inspiring the personal growth of the company’s 12,000 team members, cultivating leaders and nurturing a dynamic people-centric culture.
Rhonda began her journey with Barry-Wehmiller in 1991 as an engineer but was quickly promoted to Vice President of Sales. In 1999, Barry-Wehmiller Chairman and CEO Bob Chapman tapped Rhonda to create a team to help transform the traditional manufacturing firm’s culture. Under her leadership, the organizational empowerment team initiated innovative continuous improvement and sales motivation programs, as well as the company’s internal leadership development school, Barry-Wehmiller University.
Rhonda assumed the newly created leadership role of CPO in 2014, as the company merged culture and people development (traditionally known as human resources) with organizational empowerment to harmonize cultural initiatives and fully engage the global talents of both teams.
In 2015, Barry-Wehmiller began offering its cultural transformation know-how to other businesses through its external leadership development and employee engagement arm, now named the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute. In partnership with Chapman & Co., Rhonda has shared her insights with a number of groups seeking to build and foster a people-centric culture—from hospitals and universities to manufacturers, military entities and more.
Rhonda has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology.