2 Co-Founders of Clamshell Buildings Inc. Step Down

The chief executive of Clamshell Buildings Inc., a Ventura company whose movable structures were widely used by U. S. forces during Operation Desert Storm, has stepped down and been replaced by an official who was brought in when a venture-capital concern invested in the company.

Rowland D. Hunt, a co-founder of Clamshell, retired as president and chief executive. He was succeeded by Sandford T. Waddell, who had been executive vice president since March, 1993, when the firm was recapitalized with an investment by Chicago-based Heller Equity Capital. Hunt was elected chairman and will also serve as a company consultant.

Kenneth Gardner, who co-founded the company along with Hunt, also stepped down, retiring as a company officer and director. He will become an independent company representative in Europe.

Waddell, a former executive of Thrifty Corp., Pacific Enterprises and Fluor Corp., said that the shake-up was amicable, and that the two founders and other members of the management team continue to hold a majority of Clamshell’s voting shares.

Waddell declined to disclose current revenues for privately held Clamshell, but said deals are being negotiated to install the company’s aluminum-supported fabric structures for several San Fernando Valley firms whose plants were badly damaged in the Jan. 17 earthquake.

In recent years, Clamshell has reported revenues ranging between $10 million and $20 million annually.

Thus far, the company has received one major earthquake-related order, for a 36,000-square-foot, two-building complex that will be used as a temporary site by the Broadway department store at Northridge Fashion Center. The complex is now being installed, Waddell reported.

“I understand the Broadway will move most of their mainstream merchandise into those buildings while their store is being repaired,” he said. “The buildings will serve as a reduced-scale department store.”

Clamshell received wide publicity in 1990 and 1991 when it supplied 144 helicopter maintenance hangars for U. S. forces during Operation Desert Storm. The company also built warehouses used in Florida in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, and has erected large commercial, industrial and recreational structures in the United States and Europe.