TISCHLER RETIRES FROM U.S. CUSTOMS

TISCHLER RETIRES FROM U.S. CUSTOMS    Bonnie G. Tischler, assistant commissioner for U.S. Customs’ Office of Field Operations, will retire from the agency, effective June 29, and continue her career in the private sector.
   On July 3, 2000, Tischler became the first woman to serve as head of the Office of Field Operations, the largest division in Customs with 12,500 employees and a $1 billion annual budget. In this role, she was responsible for anti-terrorism (border security), trade compliance, anti-smuggling, outbound and passenger operations, 20 Customs Management Centers and 301 ports of entry.
   Prior to this appointment, Tischler served as the agency’s assistant commissioner of the Office of Investigations. Again, she was the first woman to hold this senior management position at Customs.
   Tischler began her career at Customs 30 years ago. She became a Customs security officer (sky marshal) in 1971. In 1977, she was promoted to special agent.
   In 1980, Tischler participated in Operation Greenback, a successful pilot anti-money laundering project created by the Treasury Department. Three years later, she was appointed to branch chief of Customs’ Financial Investigations Division, which was reorganized in 1986 as the Smuggling Investigations Division.
   Throughout much of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tischler served as special agent in charge of Customs in North and South Florida.
   Customs described Tischler as an “accomplished public speaker,” who has testified numerous times before Congress and has addressed many industry and public interest groups about border security, money laundering, narcotics interdiction, intellectual property rights investigations and trade issues.