2011-2012 OWIT Chicago Board of Directors
President – Beata Spuhler
Vice President – Shama Patari
Secretary – Nicole Kehoskie
Treasurer – Renee Poole Brownlee
Membership Directors – Jane Pilsbury and Heidi Mustonen
Partnership Outreach and Publicity Directors – Fariha Masud and Maureen Sanderson
New Media Director – Val Chulamorkodt
Programming Director – Sheila Malhotra
OWIT International Representative – Shama Patari
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Who We Are:
Beata Spuhler is a licensed attorney with over 10 years of experience in the area of customs and international trade law. In her position at Drinker Biddle & Reath, Beata regularly counsels clients on compliance with U.S. Customs & Border Protection regulations. Beata earned her BS in Accounting from DePaul University and JD from Chicago-Kent College of Law with a Certificate in International and Comparative Law. Beata is fluent in Polish.
As President of OWIT Chicago and Representative to the National Organization, Beata works with the other Board Members to achieve the chapter’s goals of bringing informative and engaging international trade focused programs to the Chicago international trade community and providing networking opportunities to its members, through monthly programs and partnerships with other organizations.
Email: beata@owitchicago.org
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Shama K. Patari is an associate at Barnes, Richardson & Colburn, a national law firm concentrating in the field of Customs and international trade law. She works with clients to achieve compliance with U.S. import and export regulations, and litigates claims on their behalf at the Court of International Trade. Shama earned her BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her JD and LLM in International Business and Trade from The John Marshall Law School. She is fluent in Hindi and Gujarati.
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Jane W. Pilsbury is a customs attorney who has practiced as an associate attorney at Barnes, Richardson & Colburn, worked as a senior consultant for Deloitte Tax LLP’s Customs and Global Trade group and worked in-house within Abbott Laboratories’ Global Pharmaceutical Operations division. She currently manages the customs compliance program for international operations at Sears Holdings, the fifth largest importer of merchandise into the U.S. Jane’s areas of expertise are trade agreement qualification, classification, valuation issues including transfer pricing, assists and royalties, risk management and cost-savings. She is familiar with import and export regulatory compliance issues within many industries, particularly the retail, automotive and pharmaceutical industries.
Jane’s JD is from Georgetown University Law Center, and she holds a BA from Northwestern University.
Fariha M. Masud, a licensed Customs broker and attorney, has been in the field of international trade for five years. She has worked with Customs brokers and freight forwarders in both compliance and operational roles. In these roles, Fariha helped support entry writers in their operational functions and audited their work for accuracy. She continues to help importers be proactive in their Customs and Trade compliance responsibilities.
Fariha holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oakland University and a Juris Doctor degree from Northern Illinois University College of Law.
Email: fariha@owitchicago.org
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Maureen Sanderson, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, holds a Master’s degree in South Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Religious Studies (focus on Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam) from the University of Alberta. After living in various countries and travelling the world as a classical Indian dancer, lecturer and teacher, she worked internationally in the telecommunications manufacturing industry for International Components Corporation (ICC). As ICC’s Operations Manager and Cultural Liaison for Strategic Programs in the Indian Rim region, she worked in India, Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China, and the U.K. She later worked as Diversity Director for Ravenswood Physician Associates in Chicago, and currently specializes in public relations and client services relating to international and cross-cultural events. She provides VIP customer service for various international trade shows, conferences and conventions in Chicago, and continues to provide cross-cultural training for executives relocating to South Asia. Maureen is a board director for Partnership Outreach and Publicity for The Organization of Women in International Trade, and in addition, sits on the board of Heartland International Health Center, an affiliation of Heartland Alliance, advocating for international human rights.
Email: maureen@owitchicago.org
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Val Chulamorkodt is a licensed attorney and international trade consultant at Cornerstone International Strategy Advisors, a firm specializing in strategic and operational support for water sector clients in overseas sales, sourcing, and manufacturing. She attained her JD from the University of Illinois College of Law and LLM in International Business and Trade from The John Marshall Law School.
Email: val@owitchicago.org
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Sheila Malhotra is a Consultant in Deloitte Tax LLP’s Customs & Global Trade practice. Based in the firm’s Chicago office, she advises clients on a wide range of international trade issues, including export controls and compliance programs; classification; valuation; country of origin marking; and trade agreements.
Prior to joining Deloitte, Sheila worked as a business developer and legal associate to a US-Asian trading company specializing in automotive component manufacture and redistribution. She has also clerked with the Supreme Court of India. Sheila began her career as a litigation attorney with a New York-based law firm dealing with commercial contract and real estate disputes.
Sheila earned her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and her Bachelor of Arts from Boston University in International Relations and Art History. She is a licensed attorney in New York and New Jersey, as well as a licensed notary. Sheila is fluent in Hindi and Spanish and member of the American Bar Association: Section on International Law.
