BRIAN BANKS
Programme Director
Bulgarian Customs Modernisation Programme

Brian Banks was the Programme Director and had overall responsibility for the programme and the performance of the Crown Agents team in Bulgaria. He has been working for Crown Agents since 1997 in various roles including Team Leader of a comprehensiv e custom reform programme in Georgia, Associate Director responsible for providing high-level advice on customs reform in Central and Eastern Europe and as Director Customs, Tax and Trade.

Previously he was a senior member of HM Customs & Excise in the United Kingdom where he served for over twenty years in a wide range of high level appointments across the Customs, Excise and VAT functions.

DAVID SMITH
Programme Manager
Bulgarian Customs Modernisation Programme

David Smith was the Manager for the Bulgarian Customs Modernisation Programme. He is a Senior Customs Advisor with Crown Agents and has been working for them since 2001. Previously he was an officer of HM Customs & Excise in the United Kingdom, where he represented the Department on a number of EU Council and Commission committees and working groups, including the Europol Working Group and the Drugs and Organised Crime Working Group. For the last ten years he has been working on projects in Central and Eastern Europe for Crown Agents, Eurocustoms and the European Commission, all related to customs reform and modernisation.

As well as technical knowledge of customs modernisation in the Accession countries, David also has extensive project management experience in Bulgaria and elsewhere, including Russia, Albania, Macedonia, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

FRANK FERGUSON
Principal Customs Advisor
Bulgarian Customs Modernisation Programme

Frank Ferguson was the Principal Customs Advisor (PCA) and full-time team leader in Bulgaria, where he has been working since 2003. He was on loan to the Customs Modernisation Programme from his home department in the United Kingdom (UK) where he is an Assistant Chief Investigation Officer in the UK Customs service. Frank has been employed by the UK Customs service for thirty years and has practical working experience in all customs related areas of work. He is also an accredited trainer.

In recent years Frank has gained extensive international experience. From 1999 to 2001 he was engaged as a national expert on Drugs Trafficking by the Council of the European Union in Brussels. This involved undertaking an evaluation of all member states and making recommendations for change. In addition to his current role in Bulgaria he has also assisted other Crown Agents customs reform projects in Russia, Macedonia and Albania.