Maria Alejandra (Jana) del-Cerro advises clients on U.S. regulation of outbound trade, with a focus on US export controls. Jana works with clients across a broad range of industries, from traditional aerospace and defense manufacturers and multi-national software companies to start-ups in the technology sector. She regularly represents them before the Department of State, Commerce, and Treasury in response to government inquiries, internal reviews, and compliance investigations and voluntary disclosures.
Jana previously served as a senior regulatory analyst in the Regulatory and Multilateral Affairs Division of the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls' (DDTC) policy office. She currently serves as a member on the U.S. Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG), advising the U.S. government on export controls and providing industry perspective to help craft regulatory policy.
Jana works extensively with companies to assess the effect of U.S. export jurisdiction and licensing requirements on business operations, including how the ITAR and EAR jurisdictional long-arm provisions can affect companies' sourcing decisions, manufacturing locations and operations, customer base, and marketing strategy.
Within the defense sector, Jana leverages her deep experience with respect to ITAR policy, implementation, and enforcement to advise traditional primes with mature export compliance programs, as well as non-U.S. defense companies looking to enter the U.S. federal market, and U.S. defense start-ups developing cutting edge dual-use technology, from autonomous platforms, to space, to AI intelligence software.
Jana also regularly advises companies in the semiconductor and advanced computing space to navigate EAR export control classification questions, to navigate and execute licensing strategies, and to develop and improve compliance programs designed to manage supply chain and end use/user risk while supporting business operations.
