William E. Clark*

Dillard’s Isn’t all CDI Has Going for It

CDI Contractors Inc. is such a dominant name in the Arkansas construction industry that it’s easy to forget that Bill Clark founded it just 14 years ago.

He wasn’t a novice at the time, having already spent 22 years as an electrical subcontractor. But when he became a general contractor in a 50-50 partnership with Dillard’s Inc., he did it in a big way. His first-year revenue was $44 million.

The Dillard’s connection has been an obvious boon to the growing business; whenever Dillard’s is anchoring a new shopping center or mall, CDI is the first choice to build it, including the long-planned Summit Mall in west Little Rock.

But revenue of $240.6 million last year and other high-profile construction contracts like the Clinton Presidential Library take more than the Dillard’s connection.

“You’ve got to know people,” Clark said. “I’ve been very involved in the community for the past dozen years and just know all the people who spend money on buildings. Obviously, that gets your foot in the door, but you have to be able to perform.”

In that way, he emulates the business executive he admires most: Jack Stephens, who “knows everyone in the country who is worth knowing in the business community.”

He has also chosen his employees with care and learned from others’ mistakes. A number of his 500-plus employees are graduates of Pickens-Bond Construction Co., which Clark described as “a great construction company” that failed because it took equity positions in some of its projects. That’s something CDI does not do, he said.

At 57, Clark said he has no plans to retire as long as his health permits him to work.

“I’m not somebody who could go have lunch and play golf at the country club every day, that’s for sure,” he said.

But he said he does think the company will continue when he eventually drops out of the picture. CDI president Lloyd Garrison is 10 years younger than Clark, and Clark’s son, William Edward Clark II, is involved in the business.

“So we think we’re pretty well fixed for succession,” Clark said.