Paula R. Collins is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of WDG Ventures Inc., a real estate development and investment firm formed in 1988. WDG Ventures Inc. is engaged in residential and commercial real estate development in Northern California, with a portfolio of completed properties and projects under development representing more than 1.7 million square feet valued in excess of $500 million. Most recently completed in San Francisco are the Sony Metreon project and the Four Seasons Residences and Hotel, developed in joint venture with Millennium Partners of New York. WDG Ventures’ corporate emphasis is on mixed-use entertainment retail projects, and community and economic development in urban areas.
Since 1975, Ms. Collins’ professional involvement in the industry has included economic and fiscal impact analysis, land use processing and management responsibility for large-scale commercial, industrial, medical, and residential developments. She has served as General Manager for Daon Corporation’s Northern California regional office. She has worked in the Property and Facilities division of United Airlines. In the public sector, Ms. Collins was part of the original project development team for the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.
Ms. Collins is Vice-Chair of the Board of the California State Automobile Association and Inter-Insurance Bureau. She is a Director of BayView Bank and BayView Capital Corporation is She is Co-Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and has served on the Board of Directors of BRIDGE Housing Corporation. Ms. Collins is also a Trustee of the Studio Museum in Harlem and a member of the Advisory Council on Small Business and Agriculture for the Federal Reserve Bank.
In March of 2000 Ms. Collins was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. She is one of the recipients of the 1999 Rudy Bruner Award for Excellence in the Urban Environment. Ms. Collins was featured in KGO-TV’s “Profiles in Excellence” broadcast for Black History Month 2001.
A cum laude graduate in urban studies from Mount Holyoke College in 1971, Ms. Collins received her Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975.
