MICHAEL E. S. FRANKEL has led and negotiated over ninety acquisitions, equity investments, and other strategic transactions as a corporate development officer, investment banker, and attorney. He is the author of Mergers and Acquisitions Basics (Wiley) and is a frequent speaker on M&A and Strategic Transactions. He currently serves as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Information Resources, Inc. (IRI). Prior to joining IRI, Frankel served as vice president of business development at GE Capital. He has also held positions as vice president of corporate development at VeriSign, where his team completed ten acquisitions and twenty equity investments, and as vice president in the investment banking group of Merrill Lynch, where he worked on a variety of acquisitions, IPOs, and other public market transactions including the IPO of UPS. He has also worked as an associate with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and as manager of international strategy at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He has a BA, MA, JD, and MBA from the University of Chicago.