Businessman Masters Chief Executive Officer of Illinois Tool Works
Speer was born in Sault Ste. His father, Richard N. Speer Senior was a metallurgical engineer educated at Queens University, Canada who held various management positions with Chromium Mining & Smelting, Calumet & Hecla Corporation eventually became an Executive Vice President with Universal Oil Products (Universal Oil Products).
Speer attended Vanderbilt University after graduating high school in Barrington and transferred to Iowa State University after two years where he earned a degree in industrial engineering in 1973. In 1977, he earned a masters degree in management from Northwestern University.
Marie, Ontario, the third of seven children. The family moved around frequently spending several years living in Memphis, Spokane, Homewood, Illinois. and Selma, Alabama before settling in Barrington, Illinois in 1967. Speer began his career working for Precision Paper Tube in Wheeling, Illinois and was hired in 1978 by Illinois Tool Works as a marketing manager.
He held a variety of different positions during his 34 year career with the company, and was named Chief Executive Officer in 2005, and chairman of the board in 2006, succeeding Jim Farrell.
