Lara is a co-founder and managing director of SECURUS Strategic Trade Solutions, LLC. She specializes in foreign trade legal and regulatory development and export control. Her regions of focus are Central and South America, Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Lara has worked with governments in Albania, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Montenegro, and other countries to draft foreign trade licensing, enforcement, and awareness-raising statutes and regulations.

She has consulted with governments and businesses in more than 20 countries on trade regulation, customs control, border security, and industry outreach. She also has provided training to officials in dozens of countries on proliferation and trade security awareness, how to enforce and promote compliance with trade regulations, and industry outreach.

Lara has consulted with multinational enterprises in the chemicals, defense, telecommunications, automotive, industrial equipment, and other industries. Her work includes conducting audits of internal compliance programs for major multinational corporations, helping them to develop internal compliance policies, procedures, and transactional screening mechanisms, and advising companies on export control compliance.

Lara has worked in international trade and security for 18 years. She is a senior fellow with the Project on International Security, Commerce, and Economic Statecraft at the University at Albany, State University of New York, and was an associate with the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia. She previously worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

Lara has a JD from the George Washington University Law School and a bachelor’s degree from Goucher College.