AUGUST 2008: AROUND THE STATE
A small window into Jeld-Wen
PORTLAND Rod Wendt, CEO and president of Klamath Falls’
famously media-averse Jeld-Wen, was in Portland in mid-July for
the opening of a showroom on the second floor of the US Bancorp
tower. It was 5 p.m. and several dozen people with wine glasses
wandered through the window and door displays. Wendt stood to
one side shaking hands with people and chatting with Ron
Saxton, a Jeld-Wen senior VP and one-time Republican
gubernatorial candidate.
At 54, Wendt has a shiny dome and a ring of graying hair around
his head, and is tall, fit and tan. He looked relaxed for
someone who’s the top executive of a $3.16 billion
company (as estimated by Forbes magazine) that depends on the
success of the housing industry for its survival.
The Wendt family has always kept Jeld-Wen out of the spotlight.
Rod’s father, Richard, founded the company in 1960, but
the nation’s business community knew little about
Jeld-Wen as it grew to be one of the largest door and window
manufacturers in the world. Rod graduated from Stanford and
joined the company in 1980. By 1992 he was president and in
2003 took over the mantle of CEO from his father, who had held
the position for 43 years.
The company’s reticence toward the media remained intact
this evening. As we approached Saxton and Wendt, Saxton stepped
to one side and waved over two members of the company’s
PR team. Wendt appeared unfazed as the two women gently
inserted themselves into the group. He continued talking
candidly about the company and its plans: Expanding
Jeld-Wen’s market into China and India will happen in the
future, but not until there’s more consistency in
building standards, he says. The company’s multiple
resorts are incorporating more commercial projects as a way to
offset the down real estate market. Jeld-Wen also is increasing
its commercial work as a way to buoy its lagging residential
window and door manufacturing.
Wendt was both relaxed and pragmatic as he talked. At one point
he used the word “terrible” when describing the
state of the real estate market. “I could have used a
different word, but I don’t use words like that,”
he said, leaning forward and raising his eyebrows.
Three minutes after the conversation began, it was over. What
had been essentially idle chatter felt like a journalistic
triumph. After handshakes with the men, we joined the crowd as
it wandered around, looking through windows and doors that
opened onto showroom
walls.
ABRAHAM HYATT
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