Alan L. Beller is a preeminent legal advisor and recognized thought leader regarding securities law, capital markets and corporate governance.  He is a Senior Counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

Alan currently serves in leadership oversight roles for organizations dedicated to long-term quality and stability of capital markets and the best interests of investors and issuers.

Alan is a member of the Board of Directors and the Audit and Risk Committees of The Travelers Companies, Inc., a Dow Jones company.

He is also a:

—Trustee of the IFRS Foundation, which is responsible for governance and oversight of the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards, the global system of accounting standards used in more than 130 countries.

—Member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, which is developing industry-specific sustainability accounting standards that enable public companies to communicate financial material and decision-useful information to investors.

Alan was the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a Senior Counselor to the Commission from January 2002 until February 2006. During his four-year tenure, he led the Division in producing the most far- reaching corporate governance, financial disclosure and securities offering reforms in SEC history. Among his accomplishments were the implementation of the corporate provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the adoption of the first general corporate governance standards for listed companies and the successful completion of comprehensive securities offering reforms.

During his more than 30 years of experience in private practice with Cleary Gottlieb, Alan has represented market-leading US and non-US companies, independent directors and audit committees in complex transactions, including privatizations, demutualizations and other initial public offerings, and corporate governance, securities, corporate, and accounting and auditing matters. He has lectured and written extensively on these and other topics.

Meredith Cross is a partner in the Transactional and Securities Departments, and a member of the Corporate Practice and Strategic Response Group in the Washington, D.C. office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.  Ms. Cross advises public companies and their boards on disclosure and other corporate finance securities law and corporate governance matters, including SEC enforcement matters involving corporate finance issues.  Ms. Cross rejoined the firm in 2013, after having served as Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC since 2009.

While serving as the Director of the Division of Corporation Finance of the SEC, Ms. Cross led the Division's efforts to implement both the Dodd-Frank Act and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Under her leadership, the Division recommended close to 60 rulemaking releases to the Commission.   Ms. Cross testified before Congress numerous times on a broad range of issues including corporate governance, capital formation, risk retention in asset-backed securities offerings, executive compensation oversight, and agency management and budget.
 
Before first joining WilmerHale in 1998, Ms. Cross served in a variety of positions in the Division of Corporation Finance at the SEC from 1990 to 1998, including Deputy Director, Associate Director (International and Small Business) and Chief Counsel.  Prior to first joining the SEC staff, she was an associate and counsel at King & Spalding in Atlanta from 1983-1990.  She clerked for Judge Albert J. Henderson of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (1982-1983). 

Ms. Cross currently serves as Chair of the Securities Regulation Institute and as Co-Chair of the Practicing Law Institute’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation.  She is a frequent speaker at securities and corporate governance law conferences.  She is a member of the Securities Institute Advisory Committee, a Fellow in the American College of Governance Counsel, and previously served as a member of the ABA Corporate Laws Committee.  She is a member of the Board of Governors of the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins. 

Education

• JD, Vanderbilt University School of Law, 1982, Order of the Coif, Vanderbilt Law Review
• BA, cum laude, Duke University, 1979

Honors & Awards

• Recognized for her exceptional securities practice in the 2006-2009 and 2014-2018 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business
• Selected by peers for inclusion in the 2005-2019 editions of Best Lawyers in America for securities and capital markets law. Named by Best Lawyers as Washington DC Securities/Capital Markets "Lawyer of the Year" in 2017. 
• Recipient of the 2014 Linda Quinn Lifetime Achievement Award by TheCorporateCounsel.net
• Named to the NACD Directorship 100, A Who's Who of the American Corporate Governance Community, in 2010
• Recognized as a Dealmaker of the Year by The American Lawyer in 2003