Symposium 2024

Jeffrey Baumgartner has nearly 20 years of Federal, state, and private industry experience in the energy sector. Now the Vice President of National Security & Resilience Policy at Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Jeff works to align policies with current threats to best support delivery of safe, resilient power. He has worked effectively with federal, state and local partners, and the private sector to improve the security and resilience of critical energy infrastructure around the world.

Emily Benson is director of Project on Trade and Technology, and senior fellow of Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she focuses on trade, investment, and technology issues primarily in the transatlantic context. Prior to joining CSIS, she managed transatlantic legislative relations at a European foundation, focusing on trade relations and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. She also worked to combat money laundering via the illicit flow of art from conflict zones and spent several years at an international law firm focused on sanctions and export controls. During graduate school, Emily spent a summer in the trade section at the EU Delegation to the United States, working on digital regulation and trade remedies. Her commentary and research have appeared in publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and Politico, and she is regularly quoted in domestic and international news outlets. She received her joint BA in international affairs and political science from the University of Colorado and her MA in political science from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Fluent in French, Emily has lived abroad in France, Indonesia, and Switzerland.

Eric Choy serves as the Executive Director for Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement in the Office of Trade at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he is responsible for threat assessment units, special investigations and enforcement programs focused on detecting, deterring, and disrupting illicit trade, with special emphasis on forced labor violations, evasion of special tariff cases, and civil penalties.

Previously, Eric served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade at the Department of Homeland Security responsible for policies and initiatives that enable the flow of legitimate trade, services, capital, and technology across our Nation’s borders to protect the economy and assure a fair, competitive, and safe trade environment.

Eric joined the Department of Homeland Security in 2016, where he led the Chemical Sector Specific Agency in the National Protection and Programs Directorate. In this role, he oversaw the engagement with regulatory stakeholders and industry partners as part of the national effort to strengthen the security and resilience of the nation’s Chemical industry.

Prior to his arrival at the Department, he served 23 years in the United States Army in numerous field and joint duty assignments in and outside of the Pentagon and around the world in Southwest Asia, Asia-Pacific, and North America.

He received his Master of Arts from the United States Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and Master of Business Administration from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Brian Fleming focuses his practice on matters at the intersection of national security and international trade, with an emphasis on economic sanctions, export controls, and foreign direct investment. Brian advises multinational companies across a range of industries in navigating the rules and regulations of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), and the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC). Brian leads internal investigations regarding possible violations of economic sanctions and export control laws and represents companies and individuals in government enforcement actions, including criminal cases brought by the DOJ. Clients also turn to Brian for advice regarding the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) process, from pre-transaction risk assessments to preparation of voluntary and mandatory CFIUS filings and management of mitigation agreements.

Brian regularly advises clients on other core national security issues, including matters relating to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) and facility security clearances, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and DOJ investigations of media leaks and disclosures of classified information. During his time in government, Brian served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security at DOJ where he advised senior DOJ leadership on sensitive legal and policy issues pertaining to economic sanctions and export controls, CFIUS, Team Telecom, FARA, cybersecurity, and intellectual property theft, among others.

John Foote is a partner and head of the customs practice at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. He is a recognized authority on the use of trade laws to combat forced labor in global supply chains. He publishes at www.forcedlabortrade.substack.com.

Kevin Gallagher was most recently Senior Advisor to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. In that role, he advised the Secretary on a wide array of issues relating to telecommunications, critical emerging technologies, supply chains, infrastructure, workforce development, and economic competitiveness. Kevin was Secretary Raimondo’s point person on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative, working closely with the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) and other relevant federal agencies to expand reliable, affordable, high-speed internet across the country. Kevin also worked closely with the Economic Development Administration on the implementation of the Good Jobs Challenge and the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, two new innovative programs funded by the American Rescue Plan.

Before serving at the U.S. Department of Commerce, Kevin was Senior Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo. In that role, he led the development, launch and implementation of signature initiatives that resulted in thousands successfully completing job training and securing employment, made community college tuition-free, quadrupled the number of high-quality Pre-K classrooms, created universal access to dual and concurrent enrollment and work-based learning opportunities for high school students, catalyzed more than $1.5B in critically needed school construction, and created a public/private partnership to bring computer science to every public school. Kevin served as chief negotiator on numerous complex economic development deals and public/private partnerships and managed more than a dozen cabinet agencies and boards.

Prior to joining the Governor’s Office, Kevin was an attorney in the Providence office of Locke Lord, LLP. He is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Boston College Law School.

Anne Marie Lacourse advises on the global trade industry for Sayari and Dow Jones. She has 25+ years of demonstrated experience helping over 2,000 companies embed international trade compliance into their global supply chains and commercial operations. She has deep experience developing, implementing, and managing cross-border trade platforms to support multijurisdictional import and export regulations and has managed three-quarters of a million classifications across nearly a billion shipments on every continent. Her extensive technical and practical knowledge across diverse regulatory schemes has been instrumental in completing nearly 1,000 assessments and audits.

She has served as a U.S. State Department International Traffic in Arms Empowered Official (ITAR-EO) and is a member of the ACAMS Editorial Committee, contributing to ACAMS Today on topics such as trade-based money laundering and managing global import and export controls.

Mary Mikhaeel is a Senior Associate in the International department. She focuses her practice on U.S. anti-forced labor laws and business and human rights matters. Ms. Mikhaeel supports companies in furthering their commitment to respecting human rights (as defined in the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs)) by assisting with compliance program building, conducting risk assessments, advising on human rights investigations, and developing due diligence procedures. She also advises clients on customs matters and represents them before U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Ms. Mikhaeel counsels clients across a wide range of industries, including automotive, apparel, and renewable energy, on mitigating their risks under U.S. anti-forced labor laws, developing compliance programs to address those risks, and responding to CBP detentions. She assists organizations with implementing modern slavery compliance programs, conducting human rights risk assessments, and counseling clients on supply chain compliance and due diligence laws, including the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and Withhold Release Orders (WROs).

Prior to joining Miller & Chevalier, Ms. Mikhaeel worked at an Am Law 100 firm on international trade and government contracts matters. Ms. Mikhaeel was also a law clerk for the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) Office of the Inspector General and an intern for the DOC’s International Trade Administration, Commercial Service.

During law school, Ms. Mikhaeel was president of the International Law Society, dedicated to helping law students learn more about international law. She was a member of The George Washington International Law Review and contributed to the annual publication of the Human Rights chapter of Guide to International Legal Research by the George Washington University Law School.

Prior to law school, Ms. Mikhaeel worked for a human rights organization, where her work focused on the intersection of business and human rights. Ms. Mikhaeel also worked for the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program on a variety of human rights matters including a forced displacement case before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights. Ms. Mikhaeel also worked as part of a team of researchers on the development of the first database focused on monitoring businesses’ possible human rights violations in Latin America, and previously interned for an international non-profit organization in Minneapolis holding Special Consultative Status at the United Nations.

Kevin has more than 16 years’ experience in various illicit finance roles, covering operational and strategy delivery, including managing the largest financial investigation team which delivered multi-million pound confiscations, cash forfeitures and established HMRC’s Offender Management and Enforcement Team, ensuring robust oversight of high harm and high value offenders.

Kevin’s current role is overseeing HMRC’s response to priority IF threats, such as tech-enabled and trade-based money laundering. Kevin is also a FATF assessor, having worked on the Mutual Evaluation Review of the United Arab Emirates. In 2020, alongside The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units and The Netherlands, Kevin also produced an updated FATF report on trends within trade-based money laundering.

In 2022, Kevin received the Keith Hughes Award for Outstanding Contribution to Excellence and Innovation in Financial Investigation.

Virginia Newman is in-house counsel and Executive Director of Sustainability at Joyson Safety Systems, a Tier 1 automotive supplier. She was previously Counsel at D.C.-based Miller & Chevalier, where she frequently represented companies before U.S. government authorities, including before Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to release goods detained due to concerns of forced labor in the supply chain. Before joining Miller & Chevalier, Virginia practiced in New York and in Hong Kong at a large U.S. law firm, where she worked on anti-corruption and human trafficking enforcement matters, litigation, and internal investigations. She speaks, reads and writes Mandarin Chinese and has deep experience advising multinationals headquartered in or with operations, supply chains, or business partners in China and throughout Asia.

Matt Pelligrino leads Citi’s Global Payments Product function for Sanctions Services, Strategy and Client Solutions. In an increasingly complex geopolitical and sanctions regulatory landscape, Matt is responsible for developing Citi’s strategy for maintaining robust sanctions controls for Payments while delivering innovated solutions to enhance client experience. He works closely with technology, sanctions compliance, and controls partners at Citi in support of key business priorities, including digital commerce.
Matt joined Citi in November 2022 after serving 16 years with the United States Department of the Treasury in a variety of national security, diplomatic, and policy roles. During his Treasury career, Matt led analytical efforts to analyze and leverage a variety of tools to disrupt the financial networks of Al Qaida and ISIS from 2006-2015, represented the United States government as the lead for all licit and illicit financial issues while serving as the senior Treasury Department Financial Attaché for the Middle East based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from May 2015-June 2019, and led policy efforts for Africa and the Western Hemisphere as a Director for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes from July 2019-October 2022.

Matt has an MBA from the University of Maryland (2021) and holds Masters (2005) and Bachelors (2004) degrees in International Affairs and National Security Studies from American University. He is based in Washington, D.C.

As Intel’s Global Sanctions Director, Jason leads in the development and execution of Intel’s global sanctions compliance program. As a former Sanctions Compliance and Evaluation officer for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions counsel for a global U.S. law firm, and consultant who has led many sanctions engagements related to matters such as investigations, program building, and remediations. Jason has deep experience in both regulatory expectations and the practical, real-world impacts of sanctions requirements in many sectors, including financial services, manufacturing, and technology.

Marcela Sherwin currently serves as the Int’l Import and Trade Compliance Manager at ACE Hardware Corporation, awarded placement in the top five franchise companies globally in 2023. As a Licensed Customs Broker with over 20 years of industry experience, she provides leadership at the intersection of U.S. import/export compliance, international trade compliance, and CTPAT Supply Chain Security and Trade Compliance. Marcela and her team focus on developing and delivering both the long-term compliance strategy and building sustainable and robust day-to-day operational processes that results in delivering products of integrity to ACE Hardware retailers domestically and globally.

Prior to ACE, Marcela spent 15 years working for various Fortune 500 companies (MRO and 3PL’s) in roles ranging from import/export brokerage and compliance, transportation/logistics, data analytics, and supply chain security. Marcela’s passion is to be a catalyst for change and fight to bring justice to those who fall victim to any form of unethical labor practices and is working towards becoming a social justice attorney. She serves on the Sayari Customer Advisor Board to further support AI Technology advancement, is a member of CSCMP (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals) and is a champion leader within ACE’s CTPAT program compliance committee.

In her limited free time, Marcela indulges in creative writing and enjoys cooking old-school Costa Rican food for her friends. She lives in Barrington, IL with her dog, Jupiter.

Brenda Smith is responsible for supporting Expeditors’ partnerships with government agencies and international organizations focused on supply chain regulation and facilitation. She has extensive experience in international trade and compliance and currently serves as the Global Director of Government Outreach.

Brenda completed a 34-year career with the U.S. government in 2021, which included five years working as a professional staff member in the U.S. Congress, and experience at the Department of Treasury and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At CBP, she served as the Executive Assistant Commissioner of Trade from 2014 until 2021.

In this role, she led CBP’s Trade mission, overseeing trade enforcement, security, and facilitation matters to enable legitimate trade, contribute to economic prosperity, and protect against risks to public health and safety. She oversaw national compliance audits, management of trade data and CBP’s regulatory process for administering trade and border operations. She partnered with CBP’s IT experts to modernize trade automation and apply analytics technologies in the trade environment.

Brenda serves as part of Expeditor’s delegation to the World Customs Organization Private Sector Consultative Group and on the Advisory Board of FloraTrace Inc. She is also a member of the International Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC) on Customs Matters and Trade Facilitation and has served as a Board Member of the Association of Women in International Trade.

John Sonderman is the Director of the Office of Export Enforcement, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), US Department of Commerce. He supervises OEE’s investigative and national security programs. Mr. Sonderman has been with BIS since 1997. Prior to joining BIS, he worked for the Office of Defense Trade Controls at the U.S. Department of State. Mr. Sonderman holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the American University in Washington, D.C. He has received five Department of Commerce Gold Medal awards and two National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citations. Mr. Sonderman was appointed to the Senior Executive Service in 2011