Her Story
About Rachel
Rachel Hernandez serves as Senior Compliance Analyst for a division of Calumet, a petroleum company in Indianapolis, Indiana. With 15 to 16 years in the global trade space, she oversees export control compliance, conducts due diligence through screening and vetting of third-party entities such as port partners and procurement contacts, and prepares global trade risk assessments for the department and C-suite. She also supports onboarding and assists customers with import documentation requirements from Customs and Border Patrol through to destination countries. Previously, she spent 11 years at an Eastern European aftermarket auto company, including five years as an account manager and time running the central documentation department handling customs and licensing. She stepped away from compliance for two years at DSV to gain ocean export experience, which enhanced her compliance expertise. Rachel speaks Spanish fluently along with some Russian and Hebrew. She participates in the Dow Jones global trade compliance roundtable consortium of petroleum industry professionals and serves on her company's work steering committee. Her notable recognitions include receiving the Shining Star Award twice and contributing to first responders give back initiatives providing box lunches to Indianapolis fire and police departments. Rachel attributes her success to diligence and an ethical approach focused on preventing products from reaching those with malintent, and she values doing work with a clean and open heart while giving her best effort.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rachel
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to diligence. The word extra has been applied to my approach, and there's something about not relenting when you just know that certain things need more of an eye on it. Especially with what I do in this market, it can become a humanitarian issue because I care about making sure that our product does not get into the hands of people with malintent who are not contributors to the good of the world. To me, I definitely want to protect that.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've received is to do what is good for your family. Don't hold yourself back and don't stay at any organization that's not gonna help support you and your family goals. I'm very family-centric, and I could never work for an organization that didn't fill that for me or recognize that. I also believe that if you don't love what you do and wake up saying I couldn't imagine doing anything else, then you're probably in the wrong field.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Buckle up, buttercup. Learn from those with experience. Take the time to be a learner and a listener. I stepped away from compliance for 2 years to learn ocean export, and that experience made me a better compliance analyst. Reach out, establish organic relationships, and listen to the knowledge and wisdom others have to offer.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is that compliance officers are often looked at as a wet blanket for business and sales, and you have to work hard at being heard and listened to while upholding federal regulations. Another challenge is the baseline misunderstanding of what data is real versus AI initiatives. AI is great except if you don't have correct real data, then it's smoke and mirrors. I'm a big proponent of data integrity and about to do training on it.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Ethics are most important to me. Just doing the things with a clean and open heart and giving it your best.
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