Wright Construction rebuilds clients' trust.(Howard S. Wright Construction)

CEO Brad Nydahl has re-established relationships that grew the firm in the first place

The 1990s have been dizzying for Brad Nydahl, the Portland-based president and CEO of Seattle-based Howard S. Wright Construction.

A rainmaker at Baugh Construction's Portland office throughout the 1980s, Nydahl was hired away in 1990 by Fletcher Challenge Ltd. The giant New Zealand-based multinational had three years earlier purchased a prominent downtown contractor in Seattle, Howard S. Wright Construction. It wanted Nydahl to run its newly acquired construction company.

But Nydahl didn't want to compete directly against Baugh. After a three-year stint in Guam running a different Fletcher construction firm, Nydahl was asked to return to Seattle to save the construction company Fletcher had managed from afar into near collapse.

Despite public ridicule from industry peers for even attempting the resurrection, Nydahl took control of the shaky, Microsoft-dependent firm in 1993. By the end of 1996, Nydahl and Howard S. Wright Construction had come full circle.

Its …