is the currently the CEO/general manager of the Colorado Springs Independent and the newly purchased Colorado Springs Business Journal. From the joys of locally-owned independent newspapers to the travails and pains of the second largest dailynewspaper corporation in the country, Fran has logged time in nearly every department: circulation, production, editorial, advertising and management. Fran's experience ranges from being the CEO of the Advocate Weekly chain of newspapers, publisher of the Hartford Advocate; ad manager for the New Haven Advocate, and at the Independent Weekly in Durham, N.C., general manager of a Washington, D.C., slick city magazine. And then a  chunk of stuff from farm publications, disco radio, overnights with Larry King, Washington office manager for the Chicago Daily News, and copyboy for the Baltimore Sun. You can find Fran most Saturdays on his knees weeding his "why-is-it-so-hard-to-grow-things-at-6400 foot elevation" garden. Fighting off deer, squirrels, miller moths and cutter worms has become an obsession. First elected to the Board of Directors in 2001, Fran currently serves as the president of AAN.