Environment

Karen Nies-Vogel serves as the Director of Office of Exporter Services (OExS) in the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) within the U.S. Department of Commerce.  Through its offices in Washington, DC, Irvine, CA, and Santa Clara, CA, OExS is responsible for the Bureau of Industry and Security’s outreach, education, compliance and regulatory activities.  In addition to counseling exporters, organizing and providing seminars, and drafting changes to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), OExS advises exporters on compliance and administers compliance checks on exporters shipping items subject to the EAR.   OExS also serves as the lead within BIS in organizing and implementing programs funded by the Department of State’s Export Control and Related Border Security program, which seeks to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and destabilizing accumulations and irresponsible transfers of conventional weapons by building effective national strategic trade control systems in countries that possess, produce, or supply strategic items, as well as in countries through which such items are likely to transit.

Prior to her selection as OExS Director in 2014, Ms. Nies-Vogel served as BIS’s Chairman of the End-User Review committee (ERC).  As ERC Chair, she was responsible for administering the Validated End-User (VEU) program and the Entity List (Supplement No. 4 to Part 744 of the EAR). Within BIS, Ms. Nies-Vogel has also served as the Director of the Strategic Analysis Division in the Office of Strategic Industries and Economic Security, and as an Export Policy Analyst in the Office of Nonproliferation and Treaty Compliance’s Foreign Policy Division. Prior to joining BIS in 1998, she worked for the Government of Japan.  A recipient of Department of Commerce gold, silver, and bronze medals, and a member of the Senior Executive Service, Ms. Nies-Vogel has a B.A. in International Studies from Kenyon College and a M.A. in International Policy Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.