W. Robert Reum led a turnaround at Chicago-based Amsted Industries, where he became chairman, president and CEO in 2001, that one colleague said was guided by a simple philosophy.
"He just wanted to make whatever he touched better," said Steve Smith, interim CEO and general counsel of the employee-owned manufacturer of industrial components for the railroad, vehicular, construction and building markets.
"Bob was made for a company like Amsted — 100 percent owned by its employees," Smith said. "He built Amsted into a global transportation and industrial supplier, all the time focused on how doing so built wealth for the worker on the shop floor."
Reum was also a 14-year board member of Houston-based Waste Management and was the company’s non-executive chairman when he died.
Reum, 74, died of complications from cancer Feb. 4 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, according to his son Courtney. Reum had a home in Wayne and a condominium on Chicago’s Gold Coast.
He grew up in Oak Park and graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School. He received a undergraduate degree at Yale University, a law degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s in finance from Harvard Business School.
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"His father was a lawyer, so he went to law school, but by the time he graduated (from law school), he knew law wasn’t for him," Courtney Reum said.
Business turned out to be his calling. Prior to joining Amsted, Robert Reum was president and CEO of The Interlake Corporation, which was sold to the British multinational group GKN PLC in 1999.
Reum, who had been on the Amsted board since 1992, became the chairman, president and CEO in 2001. At the time the company was carrying a lot of debt from a big acquisition and facing an impending recession, Smith said.
"Bob came on board and absolutely led a turnaround," Smith said. "The march in the last 15 years has been unbelievable."
John Nathan, a friend since he and Reum met before their freshman year at Yale, told of visiting Reum at his office about a year after he became Amsted’s CEO.
Amsted had a well-appointed office, but Nathan found Reum working in a small anteroom off the much larger office.
Photo gallery: Newsmakers and celebrities who died in 2017.
"Amsted was really in deep trouble at the time," said Nathan, who asked his friend why he wasn’t using the big office. "Bob said, ‘I’m going to ask people to make a lot of sacrifices and I think it sends a very bad message for me to be in that office.’"
Smith, who joined the company in 2005, said he’d heard about Reum’s downsizing. "He made a much smaller corporate office, putting the focus on the businesses and the folks who were actually making stuff and selling stuff."
His moves paid off, according to Amsted board member Larry Gies. "He turned the business around. It’s an amazing story of employee engagement and they’ve become wealthy through the process."
Gies said the employee ownership plan, which was in place before Reum became CEO, has played a large part in Amsted’s success. "It’s an amazing example when employees and the management team work together to satisfy the customer in such a productive way," he said.
Reum was a member of the board of trustees and treasurer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and had been chairman of the board of trustees of the Morton Arboretum in Lisle and The Elgin Academy, his family said.
Reum played basketball in high school and was on the Yale varsity team that went to the NCAA Tournament in 1962. He never lost his enthusiasm for the game and with his wife had Bulls season tickets for years.
"He did a lot for Chicago, a lot for the companies he was involved with and a lot for the people he was involved with," Gies said.
Survivors also include his wife of 50 years, Sherry; a daughter, Halle Hammond; another son, Carter; and a brother, James.
A private celebration of his life is planned for March 4 in Chicago.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
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