Paula R. Collins

Paula R. Collins is a founder and Chief Executive Officer of WDG Ventures Inc., a real estate development and consulting firm formed in 1988. WDG Ventures Inc. is engaged in residential and commercial real estate development and consulting 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. The company's San Francisco portfolio includes 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.

In 2004, Ms. Collins founded Portfolio Real Estate Consulting, (PRC) a firm which provides development management services to, for profit and non-profit corporations seeking to plan and develop commercial and residential real estate. To date, PRC has provided development management services to the owners of Boudin Bakeries for their showcase Boudin at the Wharf project in San Francisco, and to Glide Economic Development Corporation for the development of two affordable housing projects in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.

Ms. Collins is outgoing Chair of the Board of the Holding Company for the California State Automobile Association and Inter-Insurance Bureau, an organization whose territory includes Northern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Montana, and Oklahoma. She is a Founder and Director of Presidio Bank headquartered in San Francisco. Ms. Collins is a Presidential Appointee to the M.I.T. Corporation's Visiting Committee for the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She is also on the Board of Special Olympics for Northern California.

Ms. Collins prior non-profit board service includes serving as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and also chair of the Grants for the Arts Committee for the City and County of San Francisco. She has served on the board of Directors of BRIDGE Housing Corporation, and has been a member of the Advisory Council on Small Business and Agriculture for the Federal Reserve Bank. She was a Board member for the Studio Museum in Harlem for ten years.

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. In 2003 Ms. Collins was given the Athena award for the Bay Arena by the National Athena Foundation. The San Francisco Business Times has included her in its annual list of the 100 Most Influential Business Women in the Bay Area for six consecutive years. In 2007 she was awarded the 2007 Silver Spur award by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research organization. Ms. Collins was also recently awarded the Northern California Influential Women in Real Estate award, by Globe Street.com.

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.