Ashland Place Finance LLC (“Ashland Place”) is a global lending platform, offering innovative financing solutions to the commercial aerospace industry.

Jennifer Villa currently serves as Executive Director & Group Head of Ashland Place Finance LLC. 

Prior to this, Villa served as President of CIT’s Aviation Lending business. Villa rejoined CIT to lead Aviation Lending in October 2017 following the sale of the leasing division to Avolon in April 2017. Before its sale to KKR in June 2021, Villa nearly tripled the size of the loan book in less than three years.

During her previous tenure at CIT, Villa was most recently Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer of the aerospace business, overseeing a $22 billion portfolio of aircraft loans and leases. 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 Women’s Association), a member of the Board of Directors of 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.