Fran Wheeler is senior counsel for the Colorado office of Cooley LLP. His practice includes corporate, securities and transactional matters, including public and private offerings, mergers and acquisitions, international transactions, corporate governance, and securities law disclosure and compliance. He has represented publicly and privately held companies, as well as board committees, in a broad range of industries, including as a transactional lawyer advising clients in bankruptcy. Prior to joining Cooley, Wheeler was a partner with a Denver-based AmLaw 200 firm, where he headed its corporate practice. He also practiced in New York City. Wheeler is currently named in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers in Corporate/M&A; in Best Lawyers in America in Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Securities/Capital Markets Law; and in Euromoney Expert Guides in Corporate Governance. A member of the Merger & Acquistions Committee of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section, Wheeler is active on the task force authoring the ABA’s model tender offer agreement for the acquisition of a public company. He is also an officer and director of the Colorado Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and an NACD Corporate Governance Fellow. He has a BS in Chemistry from Weber State University and JD and MBA degrees from Harvard University.