The nomination of Nazak Nikakhtar to undersecretary of Commerce for industry and security helps fill the most senior role at the Bureau of Industry and Security.
President Donald Trump has formally nominated Nazak Nikakhtar to serve as the Commerce Department’s next undersecretary of Commerce for industry and security.
If confirmed by the Senate, she will replace Mira Radielovic Ricardel, who resigned from the position at the Bureau of Industry and Security in April 2018. Before that, the position was filled by Eric Hirschhorn during the Obama administration.
Nikakhtar currently serves as BIS’ assistant secretary for industry and analysis. She was confirmed by the Senate on March 19, 2018.
Since early March, she was quietly elevated by the Trump administration to performing the “nonexclusive duties” of the agency’s undersecretary for industry and security post.
Prior to her appointment at BIS, Nikakhtar spent several years as a partner at the international trade law firm of Cassidy Levy Kent and served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
She also held prior roles with the International Trade Administration’s Enforcement and Compliance Unit in the China/Non-Market Economy Office, for which she oversaw numerous antidumping cases, advised on legal and regulatory matters related to the enforcement of U.S. trade laws and participated in bilateral negotiations on trade issues between the U.S. and China.
Nikakhtar also served as a BIS industry analyst, performing statistical analyses for the U.S. government’s first official survey of the U.S. biotechnology industry.
