UNESCAP-UNECE-ICC-WCO-ADB Webinar on Advancing Single Window Development: latest trends and implications

Yann Duval is currently Chief of Trade Policy and Facilitation Section at UN-ESCAP, the regional branch of the United Nations Secretariat for Asia and the Pacific. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Duval has conducted research and delivered technical assistance and advisory services on trade policy and facilitation throughout Asia and the Pacific, including on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. He spearheaded the development of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), as well as, interalia, the creation of the ESCAP-World Bank Trade Cost Database, the UN Global Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade Implementation and the online Trade Intelligence and Negotiation Adviser (TINA).

Elisabetta Gentile is Senior Economist at the South Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). She is Maldives Country Team Leader and project officer for the SASEC Maldives National Single Window project. Her work currently focuses on trade and global value chain participation. She edited and co-authored the Global Value Chain Development Report 2021 and currently working on the 2023 edition. Elisabetta was previously a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the National University of Singapore, where she taught international economics. Elisabetta has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Houston.

Maria Rosaria Ceccarelli has more than 25 years of experience in Trade & Transport Facilitation and electronic Business within UNECE where she is Chief of the Trade Facilitation Section. She is responsible, among others, for the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and electronic Business (UN/CEFACT). She manages a group of over 1,600 experts working on Trade Facilitation and eBusiness projects to produce Trade Facilitation Recommendations and eBusiness standards, that can foster growth in international trade and related services. Under her supervision UN/CEFACT is currently working on more than 25 projects on Trade Facilitation and eBusiness across all the value chain including projects on Blockchain and Internet-of-Things. In her former position in the UNECE’s Transport Division, where she has been working for 12 years, she has organized and delivered training to promote the development of border-crossing and transport facilitation and provided advisory services on customs questions affecting transport.

Valerie Picard is the Head of Trade at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), a public private partnership working to make trade simpler, faster and more cost-effective in developing economies. Based at ICC’s global headquarters in Paris, as Head of Trade, Ms. Picard leads ICC’s global policy work in the areas of trade and investment, customs and trade facilitation, and trade finance. Ms. Picard also leads ICC’s contribution to the Global Alliance for Trade Facilitation focusing on business engagement and strategic communications.

Prior to joining ICC, Ms. Picard practiced law for 20 years both in private practice and in-house, notably advising on legal matters relating to public private partnerships and the development and operation of ports and terminals in Africa and Asia. Ms. Picard holds degrees from Duke University School of Law and Smith College.

Mr. O’Hearn serves as the Deputy Director of the Procedures and Facilitation Sub-Directorate within the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate at the World Customs Organization (WCO) where he directs the development, implementation and maintenance of international treaties, conventions, standards, guidelines and other trade facilitation tools. He oversees a large staff and the preparation and execution of more than 20 Member driven committees, sub-committees and working groups, which includes the preparation of meeting agendas, documents and reports. Mr. O’Hearn also provides counsel to the Director, Deputy Secretary General and Secretary General on matters relating to the Sub-Directorate.

From July 2013 to November 2019, Mr. O’Hearn served as both the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Attaché and Department of Homeland Security Attaché in Tokyo, Japan. In these positions, he managed a broad range Homeland Security, Customs and Immigration issues. He was also responsible for providing advice and counsel to U.S. Ambassadors to Japan Caroline Kennedy and William Hagerty, as well as numerous Japanese lawmakers, on Homeland Security issues.

Mr. O’Hearn started his public service career with the U.S. Customs Service in 1995 as an Import Specialist at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Mr. Tengfei Wang joined the United Nations ESCAP as an Economic Affairs Officer in 2008. Since then, he has been working on the areas related to trade and transport facilitation, digital economy, technology and innovation. Currently, his work is mainly focused on implementing the Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, providing advice to governments and undertaking studies on topics pertinent to trade facilitation, paperless trade and digital economy. In his career, he drafted many UN legislative documents, guidebooks and reports. Furthermore, he publishes extensively in peer-review academic journals on trade, logistics and digital economy. His publications have been cited over 4,000 times. He earned his PhD from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and was the winner of 'Palgrave Macmillan' global PhD thesis competition (2002-2005).

Jeppe Skovbakke Juhl is educated as naval architect and holds a position as manager in the BIMCO department for Maritime Safety & Security for the past almost 12 years.

He is responsible for coordinating BIMCO's initiative on a large variety of technical related matters. Currently his core competencies cover maritime digitalization and autonomous ships, port efficiency and ship-shore interface and data exchange. However, in the past, Mr. Juhl was deeply involved in technical knowledge to maritime air emissions and the IMO Green House Gas Strategy. Also, underwater radiated noise and lost containers at sea, as well as core knowledge in ship stability (intact and damage).

Having attended IMO meetings through his whole career, he has fundamental insight to issues related to maritime flag state administration (flag state implementation, goal- and functional-based regulation, Risk-based approval process, including Formal Safety Assessment methodology).

Mr. Juhl has previously been working at FORCE Technology with research and innovation projects for 8 years and at the Danish Maritime Authority for another 8 years.

Zahouani is a European electronic systems management expert, who has worked in the private sector for about a decade as an IT developer and solution architect before joining the European Commission DG TAXUD IT to work as the development manager for the Excise Movement and Control System (EMCS).

For the last 7 years, Zahouani has worked on digital customs initiatives for trade facilitation at DG TAXUD leading a sector with business activities on the Registered Exporters System (REX) which entered into operations on 1st January 2017, the Classification system (CLASS) and the evolution of the Surveillance system.

With his team, he now focuses on the legal, policy and business developments of the EU Single Window environment for customs and on the maintenance of the Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Customs electronic systems (MASP-C). He is also a member of the Blockchain@TAXUD team and is focusing more specifically on customs use cases.

Arne Mielken has been a professional Customs and Global Trade Management Consultant & Trainer since 2011. He was appointed to be the Managing Director of Customs Manager Ltd in 2020. He has been a member of the Trade Contact Group of the Directorate-General of Taxation and Customs Union of the European Commission since 2005.

Kamola Khusnutdinova is Economic Affairs Officer at the Economic Cooperation and Trade Division of UNECE. Since 2011, she has been focusing on Trade and Transport facilitation as well as standard-development within UNECE, where she currently leads the Secretariat supporting the work of UN Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT).

Trained in Public Administration and International Relations, Kamola previously worked in the International Financing Institutions, such as the World Bank and the Global Fund, where she implemented projects aimed at improving relevant policies and institutional capacity in developing countries.

Neelima Pamulapati is an accomplished Technical Consultant with a passion for trade facilitation and supply chain management. With over two decades of experience in the industry, she has excelled in various roles, including presales, consultation, project management, delivery, and operation/maintenance support services. Neelima has worked on projects of all sizes - from local implementations to nationwide rollouts - and has a proven track record of success.

Currently serving as the Single Window Domain Coordinator in UN/CEFACT and Regional Director for CrimsonLogic’s EMEA-SA region, Neelima is known for her collaborative approach, project management skills, and expertise in solving intricate legacy system problems. She spent over 10 years at CrimsonLogic and GeTS, where she developed and implemented cutting-edge technological solutions for government agencies, addressing unique challenges in Customs, Port, and Logistics processes and solutions. Neelima is also an innovative problem solver, having created and proposed solutions for National Single Window implementations in multiple countries across various continents.

Neelima's academic background includes a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Wales and a bachelor’s degree in computer applications from Acharya Nagarjuna University.

Ms. Florence Binta Diao-Gueye joined the Secretariat of the International Chamber of Commerce in 2016 and is responsible for ICC’s policy engagement on a range of trade issues – working with the ICC Customs and Trade Commissions to develop distinctive policy positions and insights. She is driving corporate engagement in ICC’s trade and customs work — as well as outreach to the World Customs Organization and the World Trade Organization. Having graduated from universities in Germany and France, Ms Diao-Gueye holds a Master in International Security, African Studies as well as an LL.M. in International Law.

Mr. Christian Lembke, as a Technical Attaché under the WCO Compliance and Facilitation Directorate since June 2020, is mainly involved in the area of the WCO Data Model, the online platform RAM-MAP SWIM, Advance Passenger Information as well as the Globally Networked Customs concept.

He has previously worked as a customs officer at Frankfurt am Main Airport (Germany) in the field of risk assessment for air cargo shipments since 2005. He has been involved in a risk assessment project in an EU working group at the international level.