Matthew Axelrod, the Bureau of Industry and Security's former export enforcement chief, has joined Gibson Dunn to help lead the firm's new sanctions and export enforcement practice group. Axelrod and former Treasury Department senior adviser Adam Smith will co-chair the new group, which they said will aim to help clients navigate rising export control and sanctions risks.
Raj Parekh, a DOJ lawyer who was named the Bureau of Industry and Security’s first chief of corporate enforcement in September (see 2409120007), is leaving BIS next week to join the law firm Sparacino, he announced on LinkedIn. Parekh said his departure from government is “entirely unrelated to current events,” adding that his one-year detail as the BIS corporate enforcement chief “would have continued if it were not for this unique opportunity in the private sector.”
Kevin Kurland, the Bureau of Industry and Security's most senior career export enforcement official, has been tapped to replace longtime BIS official Matt Borman in overseeing the agency’s export administration efforts, three people familiar with the matter said. BIS updated its website Feb. 27 to reflect the change.
Jeffrey Kessler, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Bureau of Industry and Security (see 2502040059), said at his Senate nomination hearing Feb. 27 that he has reservations about the agency’s latest export controls on advanced artificial intelligence chips and wants to scrutinize them. He also testified that he plans to examine whether BIS needs more resources and a reorganization.
A new task force that the House Foreign Affairs Committee created to improve how the government handles foreign military sales and export controls has begun its work, committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said Feb. 25.
Matt Borman, a longtime senior career official overseeing export control regulations at the Bureau of Industry and Security, is expected to leave BIS soon, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., urged the Commerce Department this week to decline to give the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to confidential business data, including information disclosed in export license applications filed with the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Danny Meza, a former senior adviser with the Bureau of Industry and Security and the State Department, has joined the nonprofit Global Business Alliance as its director of trade policy, GBA’s president announced on LinkedIn. Meza most recently was a senior policy adviser to the House of Representatives.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s ongoing export control policy review is likely to result in an initial set of recommendations involving advanced technology exported to China, Akin Gump said last week.
The U.S. has so far declined to tell the EU how it chose the 18 countries that will benefit from mostly unrestricted access to advanced artificial intelligence chips under the Bureau of Industry and Security’s AI diffusion rule, the European Commission’s chief trade enforcement officer said this week, making it “very difficult” for EU officials to negotiate lifting the restrictions.