Belinda Sissom

Established the Global Trade Compliance (GTC) department to address the compliance requirements throughout the Western Hemisphere.Developed cross functional teams (tax, procurement, logistics, and legal) to ensure compliance coverage from pre-clinical to finished drug distribution. Successfully mitigated corporate risk through a focus on GTC fundamentals, including classification, valuation, and country of origin.Created functional training, utilized internal social media resources to raise awareness, and centralized product specific information.

• Implemented the Global Trade Compliance Database (Item Master) with over 4,000 unique part numbers. This software manages 9 countries/regions, spanning classifications, country of origin, export control codes, Partner Government Agency requirements and recordkeeping for audit readiness.
• Led the 18-month integration plan for the Baxalta acquisition including ERP systems, Policies and Procedures
• Developed and executed global training to address gaps identified within the integration project.
• Streamlined the metric reporting process for analysis and improvement.
• Strengthened the GTC network through relationship building with Transportation, Legal, Procurement, and Tax.

Established an export compliance team for the only distribution center owned and operated by Shire, responsible for supporting the highly regulated and highest performing $2 Billion neurology brand. This program was created to cover U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) controlled substance regulations in 11 countries of destination and to become the model to replicate throughout the organization.

• Led the corporate SAP-GTS (Global Trade Services) implementation through a staged approach beginning with functional system layouts, information flows from SAP-ECC to SAP-GTS, creation of work instructions and testing at the Shire owned distribution center. In later phases, facilitated the system expansion to incorporate the use in 3rd party shipment locations and for management of our DEA permits.
• Collaborated on a global logistics efficiency project intended to consolidate and reduce costs associated with the freight forwarders (exports). Savings achieved were over $400,000 in less than 2 years.
• Managed export distribution activities including lane analysis in respect to route, temperature and risk. Automated the export shipping process reducing the time needed for document creation by 75% through the ERP system. Identified a primary freight forwarder to streamline the export process, reduce rates by a consolidation of volume and increase compliance through an agreed upon standard operating procedure.
• Created program documentation such as Standard Operating Procedures, Job aides, Checklists and Best Business Practices for the US Supply Chain export operations. Guidance that covers the entire process resulted in a reduction of errors, increased compliance and provided senior leadership with a foundation to expand the program outside of the US borders.

Import compliance – Strategically redesigned the import process from review to implementation with the centralization of product information into a web-based system and global website. Cost and efficiency improvements were obtained through reducing the number of brokerage partners by 80% within the first year. Implemented new annual requirements for issuance of powers of attorney, bonds, custom broker relationships and recordkeeping through engagement of trade consultants. External audits were authorized for a trade review as well as alignment with the global insurance team and their surety company.

Commissioned by the leadership team to do a pragmatic review of export information, documentation and recordkeeping within the export department. Compliance improvement goals were achieved through actively engaging with trade consultants to develop the export compliance program and verification process of free trade agreement documents provided by the manufacturers. Resource utilization goals were satisfied by implementing a semi-automatic solution for order entry and the creation of export documents reducing the labor required up to 75% within the first year.

Sought and awarded additional opportunities to expand my skills. Led teams of up to 100 volunteers at both the Louisville, KY and Orlando, FL Salvation Army facilities.Services provided included painting, landscaping, and flooring. Executed a contract management project with the procurement team within the PeopleSoft system. Balancing these projects outside of core job scope refined my skills in prioritizing, building teams outside my direct reporting structure and how to direct a volunteer staff to achieve goals on a deadline.