AAEI’s 102nd Annual Conference and Expo returns to Washington, DC, June 19-21, 2023, with four keynote speakers.
Alan Estevez assumed the role of Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security in April 2022. Under Secretary Estevez will deliver AAEI’s Strategic Keynote Luncheon speech on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. Mr. Estevez heads the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the Commerce Department’s leading agency focused on international sanctions and export controls. He will discuss the challenges for BIS in sanctions enforcement and the role of international trade for the Biden Administration’s national security priorities.
Prior to taking his role as a senior administration official, Mr. Estevez served as a national security strategy and logistics executive with Deloitte Consulting. His background includes a 36-year career at Defense Department.
On Tuesday, June 20, 2023, CBP Acting Deputy Commissioner Benjamine “Carry” Huffman will deliver AAEI’s Premier Keynote Luncheon speech, continuing AAEI’s long tradition of having the head of Customs speak to the AAEI trade community. Chief Huffman is CBP’s senior career official and currently oversees the agency’s legal enforcement and facilitation of trade. He will discuss CBP’s top trade issues, including forced labor prevention, green trade, and customs modernization.
On Wednesday, June 21, 2023, futurist Ben Hammersley will deliver AAEI’s first-ever Executive Keynote speech, discussing, “”How Technology Could Reshape How We Trade.” Mr. Hammersley is an international strategic foresight consultant who specializes on Adaptive Futurism and Cognitive Risk from a multidisciplinary perspective. A video from his speech in Sweden a few years ago has been viewed thousands of times. Hammersley also is credited with inventing the term, “podcast,” which he coined for an article he wrote on 2004. His speech at the AAEI annual conference will center around the connection between technology and strategic foresight.
Carl Bentzel has served as FMC Commissioner since December 2019, and helped navigate the consequences of historic trade volumes at the nation’s port during the pandemic. Commissioner Bentzel currently is overseeing the implementation of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, which expanded the FMC’s power. He will provide the AAEI trade community with a regulatory update as the Anchor Keynote speaker on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.