Ellucian announces new chief legal officer

Reston-based Ellucian has hired Lisa Gilley as chief legal officer, the higher education tech company announced Wednesday.

She succeeds Jim Bennett, who is retiring after 35 years with Ellucian. Gilley will report directly to Ellucian President and CEO Laura Ipsen and will lead the company’s global legal function, supporting strategic initiatives for the company’s long-term growth.

“Lisa brings a customer-first mindset that will help Ellucian and our community shape the future of higher education,” Ipsen said in a statement. “Her breadth of technology expertise, legal acumen and leadership will strengthen how we deliver value to institutions and empower student success.”

Gilley joins Ellucian from Amazon Web Services, where she worked on the strategic customer engagements team and led commercial and generative artificial intelligence deals.

Before AWS, Gilley was chief legal officer at Higher Logic, a JMI Equity portfolio company that offers software to create online communities. In that role, she modernized legal operations, mentored teams and advised company leaders and private equity partners.

She has more than 20 years of legal and executive experience, according to a news release, and has held leadership roles in enterprise software-as-a-service and tech companies. According to her LinkedIn profile, those include Discovery Communications and AOL.

Gilley holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross and a law degree from Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.

With 3,800 employees worldwide, Ellucian has an annual revenue approaching $1 billion and works with more than 2,900 customers across 50 countries, serving 20 million students.