Jose Rodriguez, an export enforcement agent with the Bureau of Industry and Security, will serve for the next year as a senior export control officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, he announced last week on LinkedIn. Rodriguez was most recently an enforcement agent based in Oregon and New Delhi.
John Pisa-Relli, trade compliance counsel with GE Aerospace, will join the Office of Foreign Assets Control next month to serve as the agency’s enforcement liaison to U.S. federal and state law enforcement and regulatory agencies, he announced this week on LinkedIn. Pisa-Relli previously worked as a liaison for OFAC from 2003 to 2005.
Gary Locke, former U.S. commerce secretary and ambassador to China, has joined Dorsey & Whitney as a senior advisor in the Seattle office, the firm announced. Locke currently chairs Committee of 100, a "leading organization for Chinese Ameircans," and will help guide Dorsey's international practice, the firm said. Locke has a background in foreign direct investment, export controls, government relations and "cross-cultural diplomacy," the firm said.
Seko Logistics promoted Lila Landis to global chief compliance officer, the company said in a news release. In the newly created role, Landis will be “responsible for overseeing compliance activities globally and integrating compliance teams in EMEA, Australia, the Americas along with other SEKO locations to better support the company’s global operations and multinational clients,” the release said.
Mary Thornton, former head of trade and export controls policy at Amazon Web Services, joined the Semiconductor Industry Association as vice president of global policy, SIA announced Nov. 2. Thornton will lead SIA’s global trade and economic security policy initiatives. Before joining Amazon, she was a senior trade negotiator with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where she served as the U.S. trade attache to the World Trade Organization.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White, whose portfolio covers Europe, the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East, is leaving his position, with his last day Nov. 1, the office announced.
Jenner & Block partner Rachel Alpert was tapped to serve as the chief counsel to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the firm announced on Oct. 24. Alpert has worked at Jenner & Block since 2021 and has fleshed out the firm's national security, sanctions and export controls practice, along with the human rights and global strategy practice. Her practice centered around export controls and sanctions proceedings under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Export Administration Regulations and OFAC regulations, among other things. Prior to working at Jenner & Block, Alpert worked as an attorney-adviser to the State Department and as counsel at Latham & Watkins.
Ben Glassman, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, has been appointed deputy practice group leader for Squire Patton's Government Investigations and White Collar Practice group. As U.S. attorney from 2016 to 2019, Glassman prosecuted cases involving national security, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, antitrust and the False Claims Act, among other things, the firm said. Among other Squire Patton announcements was the appointment of Kendra Sherman as the firm's first U.S. national hiring chair.
Joshua Drew, former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, has joined Miller & Chevalier as a member. Drew's practice will center on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act proceedings, corporate compliance and internal and external investigations, the firm said. He served as assistant U.S. attorney 2003-2009, and before that as a DOJ trial attorney in the agency's fraud section. More recently, Drew helped lead international communications company Veon through an FCPA monitorship.
Emily Weinstein is leaving her role as a research fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology to join the Bureau of Industry and Security, she announced this week on LinkedIn. She will serve as a senior adviser to BIS Undersecretary Alan Estevez. Some of Weinstein's recent work has included co-writing research advocating for new multilateral export control efforts (see 2205240039 and 2306270043). She also has outlined a potential way BIS can use its “catch-all controls” to tighten restrictions around exports of sensitive artificial intelligence models (see 2307060037), and has proposed the Biden administration take an end-user list-based approach to restricting outbound investments in Chinese artificial intelligence companies (see 2308300044).