Julie Myers Wood has more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sector working on regulatory and enforcement issues from many perspectives, including as federal prosecutor, defense counsel, government investigator and compliance consultant. Ms. Wood is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Guidepost Solutions, a leading investigations, compliance, and security firm with offices throughout the United States, as well as England, Colombia, and Singapore.
At Guidepost, Ms. Wood focuses on regulatory compliance and investigative work and regularly serves as an independent monitor/consultant appointed by the U.S. government. She is often called to assist companies and organizations in crisis and help them make meaningful changes to their compliance structure, practices and accountability. Recently, she led Guidepost's investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee's response to sexual abuse at the leadership level, including the development of proposed comprehensive reforms to prevent abuse. She served as the third-party auditor for a global security firm and was responsible for evaluating the firm’s compliance with EAR and OFAC for the Department of Commerce. Ms. Wood also served as the Department of Justice-appointed independent consultant for a global energy services firm relating to OFAC issues and the company’s compliance culture. Additional monitoring assignments included serving as independent consultant relating to a global bank’s AML, OFAC, and KYC remediation. She has also been court-appointed four times to serve as a Monitoring or Divestiture Trustee responsible for evaluating divestiture of various business units for a global security firm, major defense contractor, global health care corporation, and manufacturing company.
Ms. Wood also regularly assists companies and faith-based institutions in a proactive matter, assisting with culture and process changes across a wide range of global organizations and industries. She has conducted trade compliance reviews for several consulting/technology companies with a worldwide footprint, assisting with classification, recordkeeping, technology, denied party screening and monitoring of activities. She recently led Guidepost’s compliance and culture review for a religious seminary and college.
Before joining Guidepost, Ms. Wood started a consulting and software firm, ICS Consulting. ICS Consulting built software products to assist the private sector in meeting regulatory requirements for immigration and trade compliance. ICS Consulting also provided specialized immigration and customs consulting services. Guidepost Solutions acquired ICS Consulting in 2012.
Prior to joining the private sector, Ms. Wood held several high-level positions with the U.S. government including at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Treasury, and Commerce, as well as at the White House. She has significant experience with compliance culture, internal controls, and anti-fraud measures across a wide range of industries. In one of her most significant government roles, Ms. Wood served as Assistant Secretary and Head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Department of Homeland Security, the largest investigative component and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government. The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division at ICE prosecutes violations of trade compliance and customs laws, among other laws and regulations. While serving in that role, Ms. Wood oversaw the agency’s initiatives to combat human trafficking as well as its investigative work to prevent child exploitation.
Ms. Wood also served as the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Department of Commerce, where she oversaw all Export Enforcement Special Agents enforcing criminal and civil violations of export enforcement laws, including violations involving telecommunications companies and encryption issues. Ms. Wood also served as the Chief of Staff for the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice and a Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Department of Treasury where she had policy supervision relating to money laundering and customs enforcement matters. Ms. Wood also prosecuted cases as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, including securities fraud, organized crime, money laundering and bankruptcy fraud.
Ms. Wood began her legal career at the law firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt in Chicago, Illinois. She is a graduate of Baylor University and Cornell Law School.