James Villa

Jim Villa is General Counsel of BlueHalo, a government contractor that focuses on engineering to provide capabilities in the domains of Space, C-UAS and Autonomous Systems, Cyber, and AI/ML. He manages all legal activities, as well as matters involving regulatory compliance, export control, dispute resolution and intellectual property.

From 2021 to 2023, Jim was Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Aleut Federal, an Alaska Native Corporation providing an array of services, including technology services, environmental services, construction services, and infrastructure services, to a wide variety of federal customers. He led the legal, compliance, and government contracts functions.

Before joining Aleut, Jim served as Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer, at Hensoldt Inc., a globally leading supplier of premium sensors for security and surveillance missions, for three years.  At Hensoldt, he directed the company's ongoing administrative operations leading the legal, compliance, IT, human resources, security, insurance, real estate, and government contracts functions.

He has also served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer at Versar, Inc.; Vice President and General Counsel at Colonial Parking, Inc.; Vice President and Chief Counsel at AOL, Inc.; and Trial Attorney at the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

Jim has been an adjunct professor at The George Washington University Law School, teaching advanced legal writing, since 2014.  He is a past president of ACC NCR. He is a member of the Advisory Committee for Legal Counsel for the Elderly, and previously was on the Board of Directors of Gifts for the Homeless, Inc. Jim earned his JD and his BA, in political science and history, from the University of Michigan.