Dr. Ken Weiner: Denver psychiatrist tackles underserved eating disorder market.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: EXECUTIVE EDGE - Interview

Kenneth Weiner is founder and CEO of the Denver-based Eating Recovery Center, which by year's end will operate 12 centers in four states, including five in Colorado. The company, founded in 2008, will employ 600, half of whom will work in Colorado.

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Weiner moved to Colorado in 1977 for his residency at the University of Colorado. He previously founded three other eating disorder programs, specializing in the treatment of anorexia bulimia and binge-eating disorders.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO SPECIALIZE IN EATING DISORDERS?

I got exposed to the field when I was in my third year of medical school and did a pediatric rotation. The piece that was most fascinating to me was why the best and the brightest could get so sick and have so much trouble getting better. So when I completed my residency I opened an outpatient eating disorder program in 1981 in Denver.

THE EATING RECOVERY CENTER RANKED 1,102 ON THE 2013 INC. 5000 LIST OF AMERICA'S FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES. TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR GROWTH?

Eating disorders are an underserved market, so there are not enough quality programs around the country to take care of all the patients. That, in part, is why private equity has identified this as one of the sectors of behavioral health that they're particularly interested in investing in.

HOW DID YOU TRANSITION FROM PRACTICING PSYCHIATRY INTO YOUR ROLE AS CEO?

My dad was always a businessperson, so I grew up around that. I used to be a lifeguard on Long Island during summers. If you came on early in the morning or stayed late, you faced an empty beach. I would do numbers in my head to stay awake. I'd always...