About Us

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Holly is the Director at Brightfinch Limited, which she established in 2018 following a successful career in international trade and compliance. 

With twenty years experience, Holly has extensive knowledge of UK and EU customs procedures. 

Specific areas of speciality include authorised economic operator (AEO), temporary storage (ETSF), customs warehousing, excise authorisations and guarantees. Holly has been managing projects in these areas for over five years. 

Holly works with the Institute of  Export & International Trade as a Trainer and Tutor, and is an ICC Registered Trainer of Incoterms 2020.

Industry Qualifications & Certificates: 

• IOE&IT Diploma in World Customs Compliance & Regulations 
• UK Customs Academy Accredited Customs Professional 
• ICC Incoterms 2020 Trainer Certificate 
• Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor (Road)

Claire works as an International Trade Advisor at Brightfinch, and supports Holly in all areas of the business. 

With  a background in the banking industry, Claire also has over eight years experience in customs consultancy and application management. Specific areas of expertise include AEO, customs warehousing, temporary storage and inward processing. 

In addition Claire oversees the training content and delivery conducted by Brightfinch, both online and on site. Training areas include importing, exporting, transit, special procedures, customs entry completion and CDS. 

Claire also completes customs reviews for clients, customs audits and MSS analysis, alongside bespoke research projects. 

Industry Qualifications & Certificates: 

• UK Customs Academy Diploma in Advanced Customs Compliance 
• ICC Incoterms 2020 Certificate

Having spent almost 20 years in the Irish Customs authority as an operational customs officer, in 2000 Robert moved to Brussels where he worked in the European Commission on a wide range of customs issues AEO, customs risk management and counterfeit goods. Most recent work included working on the Union Customs Code, trade facilitation, customs controls in the field of drug precursors and issues related to Brexit.

Robert worked in a variety of international organisations including the World Customs Organisation (working on rules of origin) and the European Free Trade Association secretariat (working on market surveillance, product safety and standardisation issues).

Robert has prepared and delivered training courses on a number of customs related areas on topics such as rules of origin and Brexit.

Robert is based in Dublin and provides training and consultancy support to both EU and UK clients. 

After completing a degree in French and Hispanic studies, Laura worked overseas as an English Language Assistant with the British Council in Guadeloupe, Chile and France. Later she completed a Masters 1 in Applied Foreign Languages and International Business at the University of La Rochelle.

Laura has worked in various roles relating to international trade for both exporters and Chambers of Commerce. Her role within the International team at West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce involved advising businesses on general export processes and most recently supporting businesses to adapt to the changes in the UK's trading relationship with the EU. Free Trade Agreements and Rules of Origin are a particular area of interest.

Laura supports the team at Brightfinch, delivering training courses and supporting on consultancy projects such as AEO. 

Corinne Nabavi, has 45 years’ experience working in different business sectors setting up controls and procedures relating to Customs, Import and Export compliance. Corinne has extensive experience in implementing Customs computer systems for importing, exporting, warehousing and inward processing for direct reporting to HMRC. Corinne sits on several Customs Consultative Committees and is a Committee member of  Customs / Trade association ACITA.

Since 2017 Corinne has worked as  an independent Customs & Brexit expert. As an independent Customs & Brexit expert, Corinne provides advice and ‘hands-on’ support to Brightfinch clients on our behalf. These include importers and exporters, enabling them to assess and understand the impact of trade policy and Brexit on their International Trade business. 

Corinne also supports Brightfinch in areas such as customs procedures, tariff classification, preferential origin, Customs broker reviews, duty relief schemes and audits.

Sue’s role is to keep the cogs of Brightfinch moving by supporting the team in all areas of business support from finance to HR.

Sue  has a background in business administration and management, having previously worked in the Transport & Shipping industry, before moving onto Recruitment for 10 years.  Later moving on to work for a Customs Compliance Consultancy, where she originally first met Holly.

Andrew is a specialist in international tax, land and property issues and  also a lecturer on VAT issues. 

Andrew advises accountants and individual businesses on all  aspects of VAT, but in particular, issues concerned with land and  property, charities, cross-border trading, Internet trading, security  demands, and arrears of VAT. 

Andrew has articles published regularly  in the accountancy press and is author of Bloomsbury Professional Value  Added Tax. He is also part of the editorial management team of Indicator  – FL Memo Ltd behind ‘Tips & Advice Tax’ and other specialist tax  publications and is author of their ‘VAT Tips’ newsletter. Similarly,  Andrew contributes articles to ‘Small Business Tax & Finance’.  Andrew was part of editorial team of Croner CCH and edited the Land and  Property section of their ‘British VAT Reporter’, and also wrote regular  articles for the sister publication ‘VAT News’. Andrew was appointed by  leading publishers, Gee, to edit and update the international trade  chapter of their ‘VAFB’ VAT handbook.