FTZ compliance is what I teach, and what I practice.

My background is in logistics and supply chain operations. I came up through freight forwarding and customs brokerage, moving freight, managing entries, and running the day-to-day of getting goods across a border on schedule, before specializing in Foreign-Trade Zones. That order matters. I understand what an FTZ does to a warehouse, an inventory system, and a team that already has a full workload, because I've worked in those environments. Most FTZ problems aren't caused by companies ignoring the rules. They're caused by nobody in the building having the time to read them closely.

I teach the Foreign-Trade Zone and international trade course at Miami Dade College, which is where a lot of this practice comes from. Teaching the program forces a level of precision that consulting alone doesn't — you can't hand-wave a status determination in front of a room of people who will be doing it for a living next year. I hold a Master of Science in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from Florida International University, and I'm a member of the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones. My certifications include Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, CargoWise Certified Operator, SAP, and HAZMAT training.

I started Cargo Compass because the FTZ advice available to most importers comes from someone with a stake in the answer — a warehouse to fill, entries to file, or a service to bundle. I don't operate a zone and I don't move freight. That independence is the entire point: when the numbers don't support an FTZ, I'm free to say so, and I'd rather tell a company that in week one than after they've spent six figures on activation.

Much of my work runs on the Latin America and Caribbean trade lanes — high re-export percentages, mixed origins, and FTA analysis that genuinely changes the answer. It's the harder end of FTZ work, and it's where I learned most of what I know.

Cargo Compass LLC is based in Miami, Florida, and works with companies operating in Foreign-Trade Zones across the United States.

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