2017 Dean's Award for Family Business Leadership

Zidell Marine Corporation, Portland

Oldest business in the Zidell Family:

The Zidell Companies have had an industrial focus from their outset over 100 years ago, and throughout that timeframe, the family’s leaders have pursued various opportunities in true entrepreneurial fashion. The currently active family business with the longest tenure is Tube Forgings of America, Inc., which was established in 1955. It is one of America’s leading manufacturers of industrial welding fittings, which are the elbows and tees that are the connection points in pipelines.

Greatest Advantage of family ownership in business:

Family ownership provides stability and continuity to on-going business activity, allowing that activity to proceed in its ability to contribute to stable employment and contribution to the local economy, freed from the fluctuations which impact publicly
owned entities.

Last family vacation destination:

Napa Valley

Book that you most recommend:

Dean Fowler’s “Love Power and Money in Family Business”

Best business decision that positions the family companies to last for generations:

Hire skilled people with good values and give them the authority and responsibility to do their jobs, thereby creating an organization which can successfully meet the challenges that come along and which can take advantage of opportunities which present themselves.

Most exciting opportunities that accompany the transformation of the Zidell Marine Corporation:

We are experiencing a change in the focus of the Zidell Companies from the sole viewpoint of industrial activity to also include the new world to us of real estate development. The real property which previously housed many of our industrial businesses now is the center of a vibrant new neighborhood in the city of Portland, and we are working hard to realize our vision of seeing Zidell Yards becoming a vital addition to the life of the city.