Douglas Wheeler was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 10, 1942, and raised on Long Island, New York. He received a bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in 1963 and a law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1966. After three years as an attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he was an unsuccessful candidate for the state legislature, he joined the Nixon administration’s Department of Interior from 1969 to 1977 as assistant legislative counsel and deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. Mr. Wheeler has served as senior executive of several nonprofit environmental and conservation organizations, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation (executive director, 1977-1980), the American Farmland Trust (president, 1980-1985), the Sierra Club (executive director, 1985-1987), and the World Wildlife Fund/Conservation Foundation (vice president, 1987-1991). From 1991 to 1999, Douglas Wheeler served as California’s Secretary for Resources. He was a member of Governor Pete Wilson’s cabinet and directed the Resources Agency, responsible for all of the state’s natural and cultural resource programs administered through eighteen departments, conservancies, and boards and commissions. Since 1999, Mr. Wheeler has been a partner in the Environmental Practice Group of Hogan and Hartson in Washington, DC.