Michael Wain, former deputy assistant director for policy with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Akin as a senior policy adviser. Wain left OFAC in September after joining the agency in 2019.

Blake Hulnick left his role as an attorney adviser with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to rejoin Covington, where he will advise on economic sanctions, export controls and other national security-related enforcement topics. Hulnick had worked at OFAC since July 2023.

Aaron Amundson, a former longtime official with the Bureau of Industry and Security, has joined Latham & Watkins' economic sanctions and export controls practice, the law firm announced Oct. 27. Amundson spent nearly two decades with BIS, including most recently as acting director of the Office of National Security Controls and director of the Information Technology Controls Division.

Todd Willis, a former U.S. export control official, has joined KPMG's export controls and sanctions consulting practice, the firm announced this week. Willis was the director of the BIS Munitions Control Division before serving as the deputy director of the Export Enforcement Coordination Center during 2016-18. He was most recently a global trade adviser with manufacturing company Caterpillar.

David Peters has been sworn in as assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement at the Bureau of Industry and Security, an agency spokesperson said in an e-mail Oct. 16. Peters, who received Senate confirmation earlier this month (see 2510080002), has pledged to “aggressively” enforce U.S. export controls (see 2506130035). Separately, the State Department said Thomas DiNanno was sworn in Oct. 10 as undersecretary for arms control and international security.

Multiple Bureau of Industry and Security employees working for the agency's Western regional office were recently laid off, two people with knowledge of the situation told Export Compliance Daily. The employees, who received "reduction-in-force" notices, were mostly export control analysts, compliance specialists and outreach specialists. A BIS spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment.

Maura Rezendes, former head of the sanctions team at A&O Shearman, has joined Sidley as a partner in the global arbitration, trade and advocacy practice, the firm announced last week. Rezendes' practice centers on "regulatory compliance advice and counseling, transactional support, investigations and enforcement" of economic sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Serena Tang, who recently left her position as a trial attorney at the Federal Maritime Commission’s Bureau of Enforcement, Investigations and Compliance (see 2509290029), is joining law firm Husch Blackwell, she announced on LinkedIn Oct. 14.

Eric Johnson left his position last week as principal deputy chief of DOJ's National Security Division, where he oversaw the agency's work on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and other national-security-related issues, he announced on LinkedIn. Johnson had been with DOJ for close to two decades.

Matthew Napoli was sworn in Oct. 3 as the deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration, he announced on LinkedIn. The National Nuclear Security Administration oversees certain export controls over nuclear-related items and works to strengthen "nonproliferation and arms control regimes to prevent proliferation, ensure peaceful nuclear uses, and enable verifiable nuclear reductions and limitations on nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons," according to its website.