CEO Secrets to Success
Written by Melinda Ennis-Roughton Tuesday, July 13 2010
Dorothy Collins Weaver, CEO, Collins Capital Investment Inc. 
Although hedge fund business owner Dorothy Weaver began her career at a time when mentoring women was as rare as women in business, she offers this advice to the current generation of female executives: “You can do it all, and you can have it all – but not at the same time.” Looking at her life, she seems to have proven just the opposite.
As CEO and co-founder of Collins Capital Investment Inc., Coral Gables, she is considered a leader in her industry. She was a recent panelist/expert in New York at the 100 Women in Hedge Funds 200th education session. She has chaired the Federal Reserve Bank in Miami and Economic Advisors for the state of Florida, as well as receiving a multitude of awards including Business Leader Hall of Fame. She is a wife of 42 years, a mother of two grown kids, a grandmother of four, and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the prestigious women’s institution, Wellesley College. Sometime in between all of that, she managed to help rewrite law that is credited with transforming her native Miami from a tourism town to an international banking capital.
Weaver’s journey has, as she says, “jigged and jagged.” She did not set off from Wellesley with the idea of going into hedge funds, much less the financial industry. But she thinks that every path she’s taken, whether personal, professional, or community-service driven, had a purpose and ultimately led to where she is today. Weaver credits her ability to deftly chart her own course to the time in which she grew up – a time when there were few female role models, but also no real preconceived ideas about what followed after college.
“There wasn’t a box I had to check off,” says Weaver. “I had to invent my own path. I just took advantage of the opportunities as they came to me and ran with them. And, when doors opened, Weaver astutely recognized the potential behind each and digested every experience for future reference. “Don’t limit your path,” cautions Weaver. “Every experience, whether it’s professional or civic work or volunteering for a not-for-profit, can develop skills you never thought you had. You have to venture outside of your comfort zone.”
Weaver has never tarried long in her comfort zone. When first married, she and her husband, a real estate entrepreneur, had the opportunity to buy and turn around a textile business in Colombia, South America, (which they did successfully). While the culture of the time and place were sexist and Weaver worked more behind the scenes, she was soaking up everything around her. Her travels with the company took her to international commerce and trade capitals such as Hong Kong and honed skills that led to her financial career.
In the late 1970s the Weavers moved to Miami and started Intercap Investments Inc., a commercial and residential real estate investment company. As Dorothy Weaver became involved in the community, her experiences abroad influenced a transformative vision of Miami. She saw a diverse port city with many burgeoning international communities similar to some of the great global capitals she had visited in her travels. “Back then Miami was mostly dependent on tourism revenue, but I saw that it was a natural for international trade and commerce,” says Weaver.
At the time, there was a prohibition against intra-state and interstate banking in the state of Florida (as in most states at the time) which put a huge limitation on Miami’s financial growth as an international city. Working with other civic and corporate leaders, Weaver spearheaded a move to rewrite the banking laws in the state. Miami’s central business district is now home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, and Miami is considered a global financial hub.
Weaver’s civic leadership led to various appointments through the years including chairmanship of the Federal Reserve Bank of Miami and the Miami Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. She juggled these time-consuming tasks while still working for Intercap and rearing kids. “When my children were young, I realized every choice I made affected them, so when something came along, I talked to them first about what it would mean for our family before taking it on,” says Weaver.
In 1995, Weaver made the leap to the mushrooming hedge fund business by opening Collins Capital Investments, Inc. “The hedge fund business is well-suited to women,” she says. “It requires multitasking within a small organization.” As Weaver explains, unlike traditional investment banking, which is structured in a historically hierarchical manner, hedge fund companies tend to be flat organizations in which women can enter and have an almost immediate “voice at the table.”
According to Weaver, the proliferation of hedge fund markets began in the 1970s as investors sought alternatives to the traditional markets. “Hedge funds were actually created to reduce investment risks because they are not restricted to one type of long-term investment,” she says. Each hedge fund manager employs a unique strategy based on a wider range of investment and trading activities, hence “hedging” their bets. But many critics believe the short-sell nature and use of derivatives in hedge funds contributed to the current economy’s instability and downturn.
Weaver says hedge funds can’t be generalized and are only as good as the individual skill of the investment manager and her strategy. As far as the role of hedge funds in the economic meltdown, Weaver doesn’t think the investment strategy was a cause, but in some cases created an effect that generated bad press. “When credit markets froze, anyone over-leveraged was scrambling. Some hedge fund managers guessed early on the subprime collapse and bought protection. But to blame hedge funds would be like blaming someone for buying life insurance who then profits when someone dies.”
Looking strictly at a bio, Dorothy Weaver’s journey thus far might appear to be a seamless plan, but she cautions against taking a predictable path. “Young women need to realize that you don’t have to do everything by the time you’re 40. You can continue to reinvent yourself and have a whole new life,” says Weaver, who seems to have had nine lives – and counting.
A veteran of the marketing/advertising business, Melinda Ennis-Roughton is the principal and owner of an Atlanta-based marketing firm called MelWorks Inc., and a freelance writer specializing in women’s issues and film criticism. She was an on-going contributing film critic for the Atlanta Journal Constitution from 2004-2007.
Her career highlights include the position of Executive Director/Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Brand Atlanta, which was responsible for marketing the city under Shirley Franklin’s administration. She served as Global CMO for Church's Chicken, supervising marketing direction, from China to Costa Rica. And her career also includes executive positions at Atlanta ad agencies, including Fitzgerald & Co. Ennis-Roughton began her career with Arby’s Restaurants, where she stayed for ten years, eventually rising to the position of senior vice president, marketing and was the first female vice president of the organization.
