Jennifer Villa serves as Executive Director & Group Head at Ashland Place Finance LLC with nearly 25 years of professional experience in the aviation leasing and lending space. 

She most recently served as President of CIT’s Aviation Lending business, providing aircraft-backed loans to the commercial aviation industry.  Prior to serving as President of CIT’s Aviation Lending business, Villa served as the Chief Risk Officer of its $22 billion Commercial Aerospace division until the business was sold to Avolon. She handled a myriad of duties both within and outside the Risk organization, including regulatory matters during CIT’s transition to a bank, its first new aircraft orders with Boeing, Airbus and Embraer, and various other strategic initiatives.  Having joined the firm in 1998, Villa also led the company’s restructuring efforts with multiple airlines in the post-9/11 period. 

Villa earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Certificate in Political Economics from Princeton University.  She is also a member of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) and IAWA (International Aviation Womens Association), is an Ambassador for Airlink, a charity connecting airlines and nonprofits in the wake of natural disasters and other humanitarian crises worldwide, and is active with the alumni groups of both Princeton and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.