Retired Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, who ran the U.S. Transportation Command when he was in the military, has been named the new port and supply chain envoy to the administration's Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force. He replaces John Porcari.

Venable has hired Richard DiNucci, a long-time CBP official who most recently was director of field operations in San Francisco, as a senior policy adviser in its international trade group, the law firm said. He will be based in Washington.

President Joe Biden will nominate Alexis Taylor, director of Oregon’s Department of Agriculture, to be USDA’s undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, the White House said May 13. Taylor previously oversaw USDA’s Farm Service and Foreign Agricultural Service agencies, where she worked to “open new markets and improve the competitive position of U.S. agricultural products in the marketplace,” the White House said. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack praised the nomination, saying it builds on USDA's commitment to "enhance export opportunities for American farmers and producers and increase global food security."

Heather Hurlburt will be the new chief of staff for the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. She comes from New America, a left-of-center think tank, where she studied the intersection of political polarization and foreign policy. She replaces Ginna Lance, who was interim chief of staff.

Peter Quinter, former customs and international trade attorney at GrayRobinson, joined Gunster as the leader of its Customs and International Trade Law Group, Quinter said in a post on his LinkedIn account. Quinter advises on issues involving investigations by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Before entering private practice, Quinter served as counsel at the Southeast Regional Headquarters of the U.S. Customs Service.

Leslie Bailey, a former senior associate at Arnold & Porter, joined Covington & Burling as an associate in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, according to Bailey's LinkedIn account. Bailey worked at Arnold & Porter starting in June 2018 and served as a judicial law clerk at the Court of International Trade during 2016-2018.

Milton Koch, former analyst at the Commerce Department and Wiley, joined Buchanan Ingersoll as a strategic consultant in the International Trade and National Security practice, the firm announced. Koch works in trade remedy investigations "by developing strategies based on in-depth analysis of complex financial data," the firm said. He joins Daniel Pickard, who chairs the practice and left Wiley in February. Pickard said Koch "is a leading expert in regard to the Commerce Department’s ... AD/CVD calculation methodologies."

Nuvocargo, a startup freight forwarder and customs brokerage, hired Jay Gerard as head of customs, the company said in a news release. Gerard, who most recently worked as global customs director-North America at Flexport, will "lead the company’s new Customs division and build out the company’s new product offerings for its customers," Nuvocargo said.

James Sullivan, a former International Trade Administration official, has joined DLA Piper as a partner in the data protection, privacy and security subgroup as part of the Regulatory and Government Affairs practice, the firm announced. At ITA, Sullivan was the assistant secretary for industry and analysis as well as deputy assistant secretary for services. He oversaw the agency's Office of Digital Services Industries and was responsible for the government's implementation and management of data protection and privacy regimes with an emphasis on data flows and artificial intelligence, the firm said.

Megan Conyers, who was executive vice president of the Florida Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association, left the group to start a management consulting firm called Keyshift Strategies, she said in a post on LinkedIn.