Adam Sulewski - Presidential Management Fellow
Press Release
Presidential Management Fellow Adam Sulewski was recently selected to the supervisory position of branch chief of the Trade Agreements Branch
or the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement .
WASHINGTON - Presidential Management Fellow Adam Sulewski was recently selected to the supervisory position of branch chief of the Trade Agreements Branch for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – better known as the USCMA. He started his career path with CBP spring of 2009, when he applied for a fellowship and interviewed with CBP's Office of International Affairs.
When asked why he chose to apply with CBP, he said, “I was really keen to apply because I knew it would be a challenging position.” Sulewski continued, “The day of my interview, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The selecting official and I talked about the Olympics in the interview. That [the 2016 Olympics] led to a lot of engagement with Brazil for CBP.”
In his first seven years with CBP, Sulewski stood up eleven Customs Mutual Assistance Agreements with partnering countries and saw them brought to completion. He participated in CBP's delegation for the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement – better known as NAFTA. Sulewski also worked hard to educate about CBP's trade enforcement and facilitation in the U.S. government's interagency community. He aided in the creation of a course on trade enforcement and facilitation at the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Service Institute, resulting in its designation as a permanent course in the Economic and Commercial Studies curriculum. For this and other outreach he performed to the U.S. government interagency community, Sulewski received a CBP Commissioner's Award.
However, after serving at CBP for seven years, Sulewski was ready to seek additional policy experience and a new perspective.
“I wanted to focus more on trade than I could in [CBP’s International Affairs department] and was recruited to join [the Department of Homeland Security’s] headquarters in their policy office, focusing on trade issues,” he said. “I was engaging with CBP, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigation, and Transportation and Security Administration-Cargo multiple times a day.”
Two years later Sulewski decided it was time to come back to CBP. He missed “being in the weeds” and having his own portfolios to work.
He continued, “I really wanted to come back and focus on one portfolio,” he said. “I also was interested to work on implementing the USMCA, so I sought a role in CBP’s Office of Trade trade agreements team.”
He applied for and was selected to become the chief of the Trade Agreements Branch for the USMCA Center.
Sulewski offered some advice for newly appointed Presidential Management Fellows.
“Learn your agency,” he said. “What is your agency's purpose? What is its implementing legislation and what are its regulations, mission and values? What congressional committees oversee you? How do your appropriations work? How does your agency measure success? By what metrics? Who are your external stakeholders? Who is in your agency? This research is important and will be valuable as you are assigned projects that require this institutional knowledge and cross-office or interagency coordination.”
The Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) Program is administered by the Office of Personnel Management and is designed to attract people with professional degrees to public service in the hopes of developing a cadre of government leaders. The program is a two-year training and leadership development program at a United States government agency for U.S. citizens who have recently obtained a graduate degree. After completing PMF, agencies may convert PMFs to permanent federal civilian employees.