“Global trade is not simply about the movement of products and services across borders. It is about expanding access to markets, capital, technology, knowledge, resources, and trusted relationships creating opportunity for businesses, communities, and countries.”
For me, international business has never been only about trade. It is about connecting people, ideas, resources, and opportunities to build stronger businesses, stronger communities, and stronger economies.
Meet Simona Filip Racek
International Trade Consultant | Global Business Strategist | Foreign Direct Investment Advisor | Speaker
Trade Is About Access
Long before I entered international business, I learned that opportunity begins with access.
I grew up in Romania during the final years of the communist regime, where access to information, products, services, and ideas from beyond our borders was limited. Some of my earliest memories are of watching smuggled VHS tapes with my family and neighbors behind closed curtains. Those films offered more than entertainment they offered a glimpse into a different future.
Years later, I realized those memories were never about the products themselves.
It was access.
Access to knowledge.
Access to innovation.
Access to resources.
Access to opportunity.
That realization shaped both my career and my purpose.
International business is one of the world’s greatest engines of economic growth. It connects businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, and communities to markets, capital, technology, knowledge, and trusted relationships they could not reach alone.
When access expands, opportunity follows.
My grandparents' living room, Transylvania, Romania
Building Global Opportunity
For more than sixteen years, I have worked where private enterprise, economic development, technology, and international policy intersect.
My career began in international trade law and evolved into international business strategy, foreign direct investment, digital trade, and economic development.
Today I work with companies expanding internationally while collaborating with organizations including the Economic Development Collaborative, World Trade Center San Diego, World Trade Center Northern California, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and regional SBDC networks to strengthen trade ecosystems and create global opportunity.
Through Simaris Trade, the international import, export, and distribution company I founded, I remain actively engaged in international commerce across more than 120 countries. Every strategy I develop is informed by real transactions, real negotiations, and real commercial execution.
How the work is done matters to me as much as what it achieves. I try to arrive fully present, listen before advising, and leave every organization stronger than I found it including those that never become clients.
I believe the strongest international partnerships are those in which every participant creates and receives value. Sustainable trade is built on mutual success, not one-sided transactions.
The TradeScendent™ FRAMEWORK
Over the course of my career, my work evolved into an approach I call Global Trade Architecture - connecting international trade, business strategy, foreign direct investment, technology, and economic development as one interconnected system.
That approach is guided by TradeScendent™, my framework for mindful trade. It reflects my belief that international business reaches its highest purpose when it expands access, strengthens trust, and creates opportunity across borders.
TradeScendent™ grew from executing real international transactions and observing what actually determines whether they succeed. I learned that trust begins when every participant understands the complete transaction, not only their own role within it.
It is about simplifying international business without making it less rigorous. Every step should earn its place by creating value, managing risk, strengthening understanding, or building trust.
Simplification is not only an efficiency argument. It is an access argument. When international business becomes easier to understand, more organizations can participate and more opportunity reaches the businesses, communities, and countries connected to them.
Trade is not built on documents. It is built on trust. Documents simply record that trust.
Designing the Future
of Global Trade
Artificial intelligence, digital trade, and trusted data are reshaping how organizations compete globally.
These changes represent extraordinary promise but they also carry responsibility. If we simply digitize yesterday’s complexity, we risk building faster barriers instead of better systems.
My work focuses on making that transformation practical.
I co-developed the Global Business Method©, a practical framework implementing the International Chamber of Commerce’s Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions.
I lead the San Diego & Imperial District Export Council’s digital trade initiative, an educational platform designed to make complete digital trade transactions more understandable and accessible.
I co-founded an early digital trade initiative designed to simplify complex, end-to-end international transactions through human-centered design, AI-powered workflows, digital documentation, and connected trade resources. The experience and process architecture developed through this work continue to shape my approach to building more accessible and efficient global trade systems.
Technology should strengthen trust, expand understanding, increase access, and create opportunity not recreate old barriers in digital form.
Advocacy for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
While my consulting work serves organizations of many sizes, I have a long-standing commitment to SMEs.
Smaller businesses pursue the same international opportunities as larger corporations without the same internal teams, capital, trade finance, technology, or global networks.
I advocate for practical education, accessible technology, access to trade finance, trusted expertise, and publicly funded resources that allow more SMEs to compete internationally.
I am especially committed to ensuring that digital trade and artificial intelligence do not leave SMEs behind. These technologies should reduce barriers—not create a new divide between those who can participate in the future of trade and those who cannot.
The future of global trade should be shaped by businesses of every size.
Advocacy for Women's Leadership in Global Trade
The future of global trade needs more women designing strategies, leading organizations, shaping policy, and building the next generation of international business.
As Chair of Women in International Trade Orange County (WITOC), a chapter of the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT), I work with business leaders, educators, and public-sector partners to expand education, scholarships, international collaboration, and pathways for women to lead.
When more women lead, the global trade ecosystem becomes stronger, more innovative, and more representative of the markets it serves.
Speaking
I speak where international business, digital trade, artificial intelligence, foreign direct investment, and economic development intersect. My presentations combine strategic thinking with practical experience, enabling organizations to understand change, make better decisions, and navigate the future of global business. Available for keynotes, executive briefings, workshops, panel moderation, and strategic facilitation, in person or virtually.
Selected platforms include the EU–U.S. Trade and Technology Council, APEC, the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of International Trade, America's SBDC, the Summit of the Americas, and the national launch of OWIT Ghana in Accra.
What I Believe
International business is one of the world’s greatest engines of economic growth.
Access creates opportunity.
Trust is the foundation of international commerce.
The best international partnerships begin with curiosity the willingness to understand another market, another culture, another way of doing business before trying to change it.
Technology should simplify international business while strengthening human relationships.
Artificial intelligence should amplify human judgment not replace it.
Strong businesses grow within healthy ecosystems, and strong ecosystems strengthen communities, create jobs, attract investment, and contribute to long-term prosperity.
Selected Leadership
Founder & CEO
Just Down The Street
Founder & CEO
Simaris Trade
Founder & CEO
Just Down The Street
Founder & CEO
Simaris Trade
Appointee of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce
to the San Diego & Imperial District Export Council
Advisor
OWIT Uganda
Chair
Women in International Trade Orange County
Program Leader
EDC Go Global Trade Program
Chair
Women in International Trade Orange County
Advisor
OWIT Uganda
NASBITE Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP)
Educational Award for Excellence in Export Development
District Export Council of Southern California and the Port of Los Angeles
Excellence in Leadership Award
World Trade Week Orange County
Let's Build the Future Together
Whether you are expanding internationally, entering the U.S. market, attracting investment, designing an international initiative, advancing digital trade, or looking for a keynote speaker who combines strategic vision with practical experience, I would welcome the opportunity to connect.
I believe the next generation of international business can be more trusted, more connected, and more accessible than the one we inherited.
The future of international business will not be built by technology alone. It will be built by people who choose to design better systems, stronger partnerships, and broader prosperity together.
Expand Access. Build Trust. Create Opportunity.
