James Lenaghan is the founder and Chief Executive of Global Customs Compliance Ltd and a senior customs and international trade specialist with more than thirty-five years’ experience in over sixty countries.
He began his career in HM Customs and Excise and went on to lead the in-house customs and international trade department of BT plc before moving into consultancy, where he held senior positions in the customs and global trade practices of Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG, including as Big Four customs partner for Asia Pacific. He then served as Director of Customs at the Mauritius Revenue Authority, responsible for 650 officers and around one billion US dollars of revenue, and in that capacity was elected Vice-Chair of the World Customs Organization’s East and Southern Africa region, representing twenty-four member administrations and overseeing the region’s training centre in Nairobi.
Since returning to independent practice he has concentrated on customs modernisation, risk management, legislative review and trade facilitation for governments and development partners, with recent assignments in Vietnam, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Panama and the Pacific, while continuing to advise corporate and philanthropic clients on compliance, classification and duty planning, including a multi-year programme for the Gates Foundation and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition on the customs treatment of food fortification inputs.
He holds a double MA in International Customs Law and Administration and in International Revenue Management, is a Chartered Shipbroker and a graduate of the Institute of Export and the British International Freight Association, and holds the supply chain security qualification used by HMRC for its Authorised Economic Operator auditors. He is a member of the UK Customs Practitioners Group and has chaired the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport’s Customs and International Trade Forum. He is a regular speaker and peer reviewer on customs modernisation, risk management and digital trade.
James is a British national based in the Philippines and the United Kingdom, and travels extensively for assignments.
