Robert L. Griggs

A lifelong Missourian, Robert L. Griggs founded Trinity Products in 1979 after a boss cheated him out of a paycheck and he resolved to do business the right way. Under his leadership, Trinity grew from a small Missouri fab shop into one of the nation's leading structural pipe manufacturers, its sales multiplying more than a hundredfold.

In 2001, after meeting Jack Stack, author of The Great Game of Business, Griggs opened Trinity's complete financials to every employee. When the time came to step back, he declined a conventional sale and in 2021 handed ownership to the people who built the company. Today Trinity is 100 percent employee-owned, with some 245 employee owners.

Griggs is a Missouri Manufacturers Hall of Fame inductee and a Vistage certified speaker. He and his wife Shelly founded the Griggs Innovators Nexus at the University of Missouri, where he mentors student entrepreneurs. He grew up doing farm work in Charleston, Missouri. His proudest title: grandfather of six.