Trump nominee for undersecretary for export administration brings national security background
President Trump has nominated Mira Radielovic Ricardel to serve as the Commerce Department’s undersecretary for export administration.
Ricardel currently serves as special assistant to the president and associate director for presidential personnel. If confirmed, she is expected to bring to the Bureau of Industry and Security a strong national security background.
Ricardel has held the positions of acting assistant secretary of defense and principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Eurasia, and was awarded the Defense Department’s Medal for Distinguished Public Service. She also served as legislative assistant for arms control and foreign policy for former Republican Sen. Bob Dole.
In the private sector—from 2006 to 2015—she served in senior leadership roles at Boeing Defense Space and Security, most recently as vice president of international business development for network and space systems.
If confirmed, Ricardel will fill the BIS position most recently held by former Obama administration Undersecretary for Export Administration Eric Hirschhorn, who served in the role from April 2, 2010 to Jan. 20, 2017.
Hirschhorn and his former counterpart at the agency, Assistant Secretary for Export Administration Kevin Wolf, were widely credited within the Obama administration, as well as by the export industry, for leading the charge on export control reform within the Commerce Department the past seven years.
Obama mandated in August 2009 that the mostly Cold War-era U.S. export controls, which are administered by the Commerce, State and Defense departments, be updated to reflect current national security threats and economic realities.
While significant aspects of the reform have been completed, key goals remain, such as the establishment of a single agency that will use one information technology system to process all export license applications.
The U.S. export industry and compliance experts will be interested in learning about Ricardel’s understanding of the export control regulations and her goals for completing the reform during her Senate confirmation hearing.
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