Brendan C. O'HEARN WCOActing Director, Compliance and Facilitation Directorate

Mr. O’Hearn serves as the Acting Director of the Compliance and Facilitation Directorate at the World Customs Organization (WCO). In this role he leads the Procedures and Facilitation Sub-Directorate and directs the development, implementation and maintenance of international treaties, conventions, standards, guidelines and other trade facilitation and Customs procedure tools. Mr. O’Hearn 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. Before his posting in Japan, Mr. O’Hearn served as the Director of International Organizations and Agreements within the Office of International Affairs at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In this position he was responsible for international policy development for CBP. Mr. O’Hearn directed CBP’s engagement in multilateral organizations (such as the World Customs Organization, the World Trade Organization, APEC, INTERPOL and the G-7 etc.) and managed the negotiation of CBP’s international cooperation and information sharing instruments. After serving for three years as the Vice Chair, Mr. O’Hearn served as the World Customs Organization’s (WCO) Finance Committee Chair from 2012-2014 where he oversaw the development, execution and policy aspects of the organization’s €16-million annual budget and approximately €12 million in voluntary contributions. In 2004 and 2005, Mr. O’Hearn led the CBP team that wrote and negotiated the WCO Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade. During the United States’ APEC 2011 host year, he was Chair of the APEC Subcommittee on Customs Procedures, which actively pursued the establishment of Authorized Economic Operator Programs, Trade Resumption Protocols, Import Safety Operations and Single Window Development in the APEC region. 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. He graduated from the School of International Studies at the University of the Pacific in California, did graduate work in Education at Dowling College in New York and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Fellows Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Massachusetts.