Speakers

Prof Dr Hans-Michael Wolffgang, Head of the Institute of Customs and International Trade Law, University of Münster, Germany. Professor Wolffgang promotes academic research in the field of customs and advises on customs matters. Besides his academic activities, he is also co-founder of the AWB Tax Consultancy and AWB Legal Services Partnership, which specialise in customs, export control, VAT and excise law. He is a member of working groups of the European Commission and the World Customs Organisation, and various other advisory bodies. Professor Wolffgang is author and editor of a number of publications on customs and foreign trade law. 

Prof Dr Krzysztof Lasinski-Sulecki, Director of the Centre of Fiscal Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University and Member of the Executive Board, IFA Poland. Mr Lasinski-Sulecki is Tax and Customs Law Professor at the same university, tax advisor and legal counsel.

Michael Lux, Lawyer, Michael Lux BVBA, Belgium. Mr Lux is advising and coaching persons involved in international trade on how to ensure compliance and how to save customs and excise duties, as well as VAT. Achievements include the introduction of centralised clearance (so-called single authorisations), the e-Customs decision, the elaboration of the Modernised Customs Code, contributions to the Union Customs Code, and successful representation of clients before national customs authorities.

Frank Heijmann is Director of the National Committee on Trade Facilitation of the Netherlands and Head of Trade Relations at the Netherlands Customs. He teaches about Customs, Trade facilitation and Enforcement at several academic institutes and he is a member of the teaching team at Erasmus University Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), MSc program Customs & Supply Chain Compliance. Frank holds over 36 years of Customs experience, having an in-depth knowledge in the fields of customs legislation, international business and logistics, e-commerce and enforcement strategy and he is the author of the book ‘Customs, Inside Anywhere, Insights Everywhere’.

Michael Tomuscheit is Managing Director of AWB Consulting GmbH, Germany, a company specialising in business consultancy on customs, export controls and VAT matter. AWB Consulting is part of AWB Group which furthermore includes a Tax Consultancy as well as a Law Firm. After completing his studies at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences in Münster, Westphalia, Michael started his career in the senior ranks of the German customs administration. At the same time, he furthered his education by studying business law at the University of Saarland. As Senior Manager of customs consultancy at Deloitte and Ernst & Young, Michael advised national and international companies on all legal aspects of customs, excise and foreign trade as well as the implementation of customs and customs-IT projects. As Trade Compliance Manager at Intel and Global Manager of Customs Strategy and Governance at the BMW Group, he specialised in international project management in all areas of customs and foreign trade law. Thereby, he established and implemented process and organisational structures, risk management systems and customs-IT.

Christopher Matt, managing director of MA-TAX Consulting GmbH, head of the classification and export controls unit. Leads the team that is responsible for the classification as a full-service for a significant number of clients in Europe and the USA. "I live and breathe the nomenclature - almost accidentally. Nobody dreams of becoming a specialist in customs tariff classification. Through our consulting division, an internal need for classification specialists arose - that was more than 10 years ago. Over time, we developed a system that gives clients a flexible choice between 100% in-house service and full outsourcing of classification (and export control/dual use verification) - while maintaining a maximum of security and re-tracability in the classification decisions. What started as a small project is now a separate unit that classifies a significant number of goods daily. From the beginning I had the pleasure of being responsible for managing and building this service, and I am still (each day) responsible for assigning the correct tariff number to many articles." 

Zandra is Chartered Certified Accountant, Chartered Tax Adviser, Customs Agent & Adviser, based in Ireland. She is co-founder of HFS which offer Customs, Accounting & Tax services to a varied client base of multinationals to the SME sector. For many businesses, trading through a customs border for the first time is a challenge and Zandra has helped many upskill and thrive to regain their market share. Specialising in SPS clearances she works closely with clients and all government agencies involved.

Kevin Shakespeare, Director of Strategic Projects and International Development at the Institute of Export & International Trade (IOE&IT), the UK. The director of the IOE&IT Academy and an approved UN international trade trainer, Kevin has developed several of the IOE&IT’s educational and training programmes including the Diploma in World Customs Compliance and Regulation. He has worked on trade initiatives with Invest NI, Scottish Enterprise, UK Export Finance, Saudi Export Development Authority, among others, and is also the dean of the UK Customs Academy and NI Customs and Trade Academy.

Richard Bartlett, Managing Director, Export Unlocked, the UK. Richard has worked in logistics for over 26 years running his own forwarding business until 2016 when he set up ‘Export Unlocked’ offering Consultancy and Advice in International Trade, helping businesses Export. An enthusiast for all things to do with world trade, Richard understands the many aspects of both importing and exporting. Using his vast experience, he is now working closely with Greater Manchester Chamber, Halton Chamber, ICC Academy in Singapore and the Institute of Export & International Trade delivering training in Brexit Compliance, Incoterms, Rules of Origin and commodity codes, understanding Exporting / Importing, Customs CompliancRichard’s work has taken him around the world. In 2020 alone he has presented in Genève for the World Trade Organisation (WTO), in Doha for Qatar Development Bank and North and South of Ireland with Trade Ireland giving him valuable insights and a strong understanding of how different markets operate. For example, in a recent project for a Manchester based company he helped them establish offices in the US with a 3 PL warehouse, its own brokerage and direct shipments from Taiwan and Shanghai into Nevada.

Arne Mielken is a leading global trade professional in the UK and the EU and Managing Director of Customs Manager Ltd. He is accredited customs & export control practitioner and certified classification specialist. Arne is on a mission to empower businesses and people with import and export responsibilities with advice, consulting, training and trade intelligence to grow their businesses by trading across the border effectively, efficiently and, of course, compliantly. He holds a BA (Hons) on International Business and Modern Languages and an Executive MBA. He holds a Diploma in World Customs Compliance and Procedures. He is a member of the EU's Trade Contact Group (TCG) of DG TAXUD and a member of the HMRC-sponsored Joint Customs Consultative Committee (JCCC). He often speaks at public events and writes on customs and global trade topics. He speaks German, English, French and Spanish.

Dr Christian Struck is an in-house lawyer and lawyer for customs and international trade law. He holds a position as Global Head of Trade Compliance at Wacker Chemie AG a globally operating chemical company present in all key economic areas and related markets in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.

As a practitioner, he advises and coordinates on international supply chains with respect to customs, export controls and other trade compliance regulations, as well as to parts of foreign trade-related contract law. Christian is an author of several articles on customs-, export control- and tax-related topics as well as of the books 'UCC – Practitioner's Edition with integrated DA, TDA and IA' (available in German and English) and 'Product Regulation and Standards in WTO Law'.

Anna Gayk is Managing Partner of Mendel, the leading European foreign trade information service and data content provider on applied global tariff and non-tariff measures. Mendel specialises in research, provision and updating of this information for numerous destination countries all over the world. Anna joined the company in the 2000s where the main goal was to transform the company from a classical publishing house to a specialised international service provider. In her daily work, she supervises the research, evaluation and presentation of foreign trade information on, among other things, customs tariffs, import regulations and rules of origin. She also manages and coordinates the development of electronic applications and databases as well as classic publication projects. She is the author and co-author of various books and articles on topics including customs and preferential law, import regulations of third countries and certification regulations. She is also a member of the editorial board of the foreign trade journal FOREIGN TRADE.