Committee Chairs:

William Ferrara, Co-Founder, Harbour Island Consulting, LLC
harbourislandconsulting@gmail.com

Ania Wierzbowska-Fuller, Director of Consulting and Regulatory Affairs, A.N. Deringer, Inc.
afuller@anderinger.com

Customs Compliance meets regularly and has quarterly meetings with CBP. The CONECT Customs Committee remains committed to fostering strong relationships with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and advancing the interests of the trade community. This year, the committee has focused heavily on outreach, engaging with CBP field offices across the country to enhance communication and collaboration. Recent meetings with the Buffalo, Boston, and Seattle CBP offices have provided valuable insights into regional operational challenges and opportunities, and we plan to expand our outreach efforts to additional field offices in the coming months.

Committee Chair:

Joe Devine, President, AXIOTROP, LLC
joe.devine@axiotrop.com

Many challenges are facing trade and transportation companies including a boom in e-commerce, supply chain integration, forced-labor, and numerous other import-export challenges. Add to this list cybersecurity, which has historically been a lower priority. With burgeoning digital record keeping and data tracking comes greater cyber breach threats. CBP’s CTPAT minimum security criteria (MSC) are helpful, but companies often need support to understand and implement them into their current business processes. For these and other reasons, we created the Cybersecurity Committee to assist our members in understanding and actioning cybersecurity.

Committee Chairs:

Matthew Bock, Partner, Bock Trade Law
mbock@bocktradelaw.com

Christa Hurley, Director Trade Compliance, Allegro Systems
churley@allegromicro.com

Export Controls & Sanctions Committee meant to inform, engage, and advocate on behalf of our members on key export controls and sanctions issues affecting our businesses and the industry at large every day.

Committee Chair:

Rachel Shames, CV International

The Transportation Committee offers CONECT members educational sessions throughout the year. The featured guests have graciously offered to share their PowerPoint Presentations as a valuable resource.

Committee Chair:

Kerri Hawley, Senior Customs and Trade Compliance Manager, RG Barry Brand, LLC
khawley@rgbarry.com

Are you interested in getting more involved? CONECT's membership committee is looking for new members and would like you to join. This is a great opportunity to engage with other members and support the trade and transportation industry.

Committee Chair:

CONECT office

CONECT Next Generation (CNG) is for CONECT members developing their professional careers.

CONECT members receive the benefit of regular updates from Peter Friedmann, CONECT's Counsel in Washington D.C. Peter provides the current status of federal issues and insights on how these issues impact trade and how they may be resolved. Join the weekly Tuesday at 10:00 call to hear the latest from Peter and other trade and transportation leaders.

CONECT serves as a unified and highly effective voice to enhance the trade and transportation infrastructure for the trade. CONECT promotes free and fair trade through writing and supporting policy letters. These letters are signed on behalf of CONECT members.

Stay informed and connect with industry leaders. Over 100 members across the industry join the Tuesday at 10 call each week to hear the latest in trade and transportation, facilitated by Peter Friedmann and Karen Kenney.

Members only. Please email the CONECT office to join the call

Committee Chair:

Jack Bender, VISY Global Logistics
jack.bender@visy.com

CONECT awards scholarships to deserving college students every year to honor the legacy of Senator Chaffee. The scholarship committee promotes fundraising efforts to support the scholarships and review applications.