Mr. Mills was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 11, 2010, as President Obama’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).  In this capacity, Mr. Mills is responsible for the protection and promotion of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives through a law enforcement program focused on deterring the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and missile delivery systems, diversion of dual-use goods to unauthorized military end-uses, terrorists and state sponsors of terror and prohibited foreign boycotts.  He oversees an elite cadre of special agents dedicated to the enforcement of export control laws.  Export Enforcement special agents are located worldwide - at the U.S. Commerce Department in Washington, D.C., in nine domestic field offices, and at U.S. Embassies in the United Arab Emirates, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, and Russia.  Export Enforcement also administers an active industry outreach and education program focused on strengthening industry compliance with the Export Administration Regulations. 

Mr. Mills has a distinguished federal and private sector career focusing on export control policy and enforcement.  From 1985-1987, he served as an Attorney/Advisor for what was then the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Export Administration (now BIS). In 1987, he moved to the Chief Counsel’s Office for the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the U.S. Treasury Department.  During his tenure at OFAC, Mr. Mills was responsible for participating in various capacities in administering and enforcing economic sanctions programs targeting terrorism and state sponsors of terrorism, weapons proliferators, narcotics traffickers, and other regimes and persons whose activities are inimical to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.  From 2003-2005, he served as OFAC’s Chief of Licensing.  Immediately prior to his nomination as Assistant Secretary, Mr. Mills worked in private practice at the law firms of DLA Piper, and Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, specializing in economic sanctions, export controls and antiboycott matters. 

Mr. Mills received his B.A. from Colby College in Maine, and his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, Florida.  Immediately after completing his J.D. coursework, he clerked for a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida.