Angela Ellard, former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization, has joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies as a nonresident senior adviser with its Economic Security and Technology Department, the think tank announced Dec. 15. Ellard joined WTO as deputy director-general in 2021 after serving as chief trade counsel for the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Dave Hanke, the staff director of the House Select Committee on China, will start a new role as counsel to committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., Hanke announced on LinkedIn. Hanke will begin Jan. 1, and Maseh Zarif, the committee's current director of external affairs, will replace him as staff director.

Vincent Annunziato, director of CBP’s business transformation and innovation division, will retire from the agency at the end of the year, he said on LinkedIn. Annunziato worked at CBP for 29 years, including on ACE and the agency’s more recent global interoperability efforts.

Julie Ann Parks is joining Alba Wheels Up as a “strategic partner” to lead the company’s trade advisory services practice, the company said in a Dec. 8 news release. Parks recently left her job as executive director of global customs in the office of general counsel for RTX (see 2511190022).

Kristi App joined the Port of New Orleans as its chief commercial officer, the port said in a LinkedIn post. App, vice president of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America and president of the New Orleans broker association, had been chief operating officer at J.W. Allen.

Danielle Cossey, a staff attorney at the Commerce Department, will leave the agency to join Sidley Austin, Cossey confirmed to us. She joined Commerce in the Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance in 2023 after graduating from the George Washington University Law School. Cossey will start at Sidley on Dec. 1.

Julie Ann Parks is leaving her job at RTX, where she was most recently executive director of global customs, she said on LinkedIn. Parks had been at RTX, previously known as Raytheon, since 2010. In her post, the former member of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee said she’s “stepping into a new chapter” and indicated she’d still work in trade.

A trial attorney at DOJ's international trade field office, Luke Mathers, has left the agency and joined Sandler Travis as an associate, according to his LinkedIn profile. Mathers joined DOJ in 2022 in the New York-based trade field office, where he worked on various customs and antidumping and countervailing duty matters. Prior to joining the agency, Mathers was an associate at Skadden.

Pete Mento is joining consultancy Baker Tilly to “lead and develop” its customs and global trade practice, he said on LinkedIn. The practice will “be focused on client solutions to manage and reduce tariffs with a strict eye toward compliance and technology driven solutions,” he said.

Pete Mento is leaving his role as director of global customs for DSV, he said in a post on LinkedIn. He said he will return to his “focus of minimizing and eliminating tariffs for importers,” and will have “more on that later.”