Environment

Duaine A. Priestley joined Rice University's Office of Research Integrity as an Export Compliance Analyst in August 2023. He has over 20 years of experience in industry and the U.S. Government, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He has deep expertise in international trade and export compliance that spans nearly all subject matters related to global trade and export compliance. 

After graduating from American University with an MA in International Studies, Mr. Priestley joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, International Division as an International Trade Analyst. His duties included drafting trade policy positions on a diverse set of issues, including, but not limited to: China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), normalization of relations with Vietnam, and reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im). He has supported U.S.-foreign relations in various capacities, including organizing a three day conference with a senior level delegation of Chinese officials.

Mr. Priestley then joined the U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration (ITA) as a Senior International Trade Specialist where he organized trade missions and advocated for U.S. small businesses expansion into foreign markets. In this context, Mr. Priestley organized and implemented trade missions to Ukraine, Chile, and India. Additionally, he was nominated to the Designated Federal Officer (DFO) for the Commerce Department's Industry Sector Advisory Council (ISAC-13) for Electronics and Medical Devices. He also served as the Commerce Department's Subject Matter Expert (SME) for encryption and was a member of the Commerce Department negotiating team on data privacy with the EU.

In 1999, Mr. Priestley served as a Manager, International Regulatory Compliance with UUNET, the world's largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) to corporations and governments, both U>S. and abroad. In this position, he was responsible for ensuring all UUNET vendors electronic equipment met foreign government standards. He was also responsible for opening new UUNET operating companies abroad. Among his other duties he was responsible for all export compliance regulations outside of the U.S., including negotiating freight forwarder contracts.

Mr. Priestley was named Director of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Commercial Service, Houston in 2004 where he was responsible for seven direct reports. He quickly became a valued party for the City of Houston's International Department, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Port of Houston, and Houston Airport system. He also served on the Texas Medical Center's International Affairs office. Mr Priestley provided critical advice to small and medium-sized companies regarding export opportunities. 

In 2011, Mr. Priestley reached professional nirvana when he started his consulting company. His first contract was with the Government of Queensland, Australia, as their U.S. Inward Investment Consultant and ValvTechnologies, a manufacturer of severe service valves. He also represented an energy industry trade show, developed and implemented export compliance programs for nine companies in a variety of industries, provided multiple training sessions on U.S. Sanctions on Russia and Iran, FCPA, AML, and KYC t o a variety of conferences and workshops. In 2018, Mr. Priestley traveled often to Saudi Arabia to identify investment opportunities for a local company and successfully identified and negotiated an agreement between his client and the Saudi firm.