Value judgments mean nothing, however, if the fund doesn't beat the market. "We wanted to earn a market rate, if not better, and felt that if we couldn't, we didn't have any right to be in the business at all," Collier says. Until 2000, the fund beat the S&P 500 Index handily every year. "Last year was a great year for polluters and military contractors," Collier notes glumly. The fund now has $623 million in assets, and the company has a total of about $2 billion under management. Today, Citizens is worth at least 10 times what Collier and her investors paid for that first money-market fund.
Like other investors in the late 1990s, Collier and Citizens benefited from a healthy sampling of technology stocks in the index fund's portfolio. But despite that bump, it's worth noting that Collier built a stellar record with zero experience in the mutual-fund industry. "I was amazed, frankly" says John Shields, the CEO Collier hired as her replacement in 1999. "I had worked in the industry for 27 years, and I'd seen plenty of people with lots of experience who did not do as good a job as she did. Before I got here, I would not have thought that would have even been possible."
Collier took a keen interest in the technology stocks in Citizens's portfolio, in part because being involved in a tech company had always been on her list of things to do. So when the Broadwave challenge presented itself, she leapt at the opportunity to get on board.
Last November, Collier's efforts were rewarded when the FCC agreed in principle that companies like Broadwave should be able to share the crowded digital spectrum. Now the FCC needs to sort out the auction issues before Broadwave can get a license to build its system. That could take another year or more, aggrieved parties could sue, and any number of unforeseen technological glitches could develop. If Broadwave manages to clear those hurdles, then consumers will get a crack at determining whether the company survives. Collier figures that the company could be profitable with 2% of the current market for cable and direct-broadcast-satellite systems, assuming it can offer high-speed Internet access and about 100 television channels for approximately $40 per month.
At this, the halfway point on her wild career ride, Collier doesn't really have to work so hard. She could ditch the apartment in Washington and spend more time in Portsmouth. She could carve out another interesting, less stressful niche for herself. But, she says, the Broadwave struggle -- and the ones that have come before it -- only serve to energize her. "People like to participate in things that are fun and exciting," she says. "It doesn't have to be a popular idea at first. It just has to be great. If it is great and you can find a way to reveal that to other people, you've found the best reason to be part of something neat and new."
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