Rhonda Spencer believes she has the best job in the world. As Barry-Wehmiller’s Chief People Officer, Spencer leads a team of professionals whose central role is sustaining the organization’s vision of measuring success by the way they touch the lives of people. Spencer’s team focuses on inspiring personal growth of the $3B global organization’s 12,000 team members, cultivating leaders in all corners of the firm, and fostering a culture where caring for people and performing with excellence have become the foundations of their success.
Spencer began her journey with Barry-Wehmiller in 1991 as an engineer but was quickly promoted to VP of Sales. In 1999, Barry-Wehmiller’s visionary CEO Bob Chapman tapped Spencer to create a team to help transform the traditional manufacturing firm’s culture. Under Spencer’s leadership, the Organizational Empowerment Team initiated innovative continuous improvement and sales motivation programs as well as the organization’s internal leadership development institute, Barry-Wehmiller University. Spencer assumed the newly created role of CPO in June 2014 as the organization merged Culture and People Development (traditionally known as HR) and Organizational Empowerment to harmonize cultural initiatives and fully engage the global talents of both teams.
