Dottie Herman is the president and C.E.O. of Douglas Elliman, the largest residential brokerage in the New York metropolitan area and one of the biggest in the United States.

She oversees more than 4,000 sales professionals in more than 60 offices; Douglas Elliman also runs a title-servicer; a mortgage company; a new-development marketing wing; and a building-management concern that managers more than 60,000 condos and co-ops in 240 buildings.

A Long Island native, she learned the real estate business while at Merrill Lynch in the 1980s, and borrowed $9 million to purchase the brokerage Prudential Long Island Realty in 1989. Four years later, her and her business partner, Howard Lorber, arranged a nearly $72 million deal to take control of Douglas Elliman, then the largest brokerage in Manhattan.

The pair over the next two decades grew Douglas Ellimans presence into every borough, Northern New Jersey, the Hamptons, and Westchester County.

-TA