The finalists for WashingtonExec’s Chief Officer Awards were announced March 17, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person May 10.
Next is Chief Legal Counsel finalist in the Public Company category Jim Lee, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Maxar Technologies. Here, he talks about key recent achievements, primary focus areas going forward, career advice and more.
What has made you successful in your current role?
I’ve always believed that to be a successful functional leader, you must have a cross-functional approach. You can’t stay in a silo and think only about the needs of your own department. Instead, you must have a deep understanding of the broader business so that you can determine how your department should operate to help achieve strategic business objectives and unlock growth.
This philosophy is particularly important for a General Counsel. In a business, we are the risk gatekeepers. Typically, we’re asked to focus on assessing the risk of taking certain actions. However, a strong General Counsel will also consider the risk of inaction ⏤ what you might lose out on if you do nothing.
When it’s worth taking a risk to help grow the business, you must counsel your peers to help them understand why. You can only do that if you have built that broader business understanding yourself and if you’ve built good working relationships with those other leaders.
At Maxar, we’ve made several decisions that fit this mold. We’ve invested in new acquisitions, built new teams to aggressively pursue new markets and more. These decisions haven’t always been easy or come at the most convenient time, but they’ve been critical to Maxar’s growth and success.
What key achievements did you have in 2022/2023?
Our biggest achievement in 2022 was negotiating and finalizing an agreement to sell Maxar to private equity firm Advent International, which is anticipated to close early this summer. Deals of this magnitude are complex and involve a range of stakeholders, from our Board of Directors to senior management to internal and external legal experts and more. Our legal team helped facilitate an efficient negotiating process that resulted in a strong deal that helps set Maxar up for long-term success.
I’m also proud of the investments we made in new capabilities and talent, particularly our investment in blackshark.ai and our acquisitions of Aurora Insight and Wovenware. These moves have all helped bolster our capabilities in strategic growth areas.
In April 2022, we announced a strategic investment in blackshark.ai, a 3D geospatial technology startup. Maxar is leading the geospatial industry’s transition from 2D to 3D, and our partnership with blackshark.ai allowed us to accelerate the development of 3D products that complement, but expand on, our existing 3D portfolio.
In February 2023, we launched a joint product called SYNTH3D, a high-performance, geotypical 3D representation of the entire planet for gaming, entertainment and metaverse applications.
The acquisition of Aurora Insight brings radio frequency (RF) capabilities into our integrated, multisource geospatial intelligence offering, further differentiating our industry-leading portfolio. The acquisition of artificial intelligence (AI) and software development company Wovenware significantly adds to Maxar’s software engineering capabilities and talent, allowing us to accelerate development of new products and services while also giving us an advantage in a highly competitive talent market.
What are you most proud of having been a part of in your current organization?
I’m extremely proud of the legal team that we’ve built during my time at Maxar. It’s a team that has bought into the cross-functional philosophy I outlined earlier, collaborating with colleagues across the company to problem solve at speed and break down barriers to growth.
We’ve also brought in experienced professionals with expertise in legal functions that we used to outsource, including intellectual property (IP), data security and privacy, employment law and more. We’ve become a more efficient team that has a reputation across our company for being a good partner in enabling growth.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the future of our nation?
We’re focused on supporting strategic growth opportunities across the business, including helping with the efficient rollout of new products and services. For example, we anticipate that demand for our 3D geospatial products will grow significantly in the years to come, and with that comes a whole host of legal considerations, from licensing to IP protection and more.
We have a fantastic team that has the right expertise and capability to help quickly address these items and get products to market faster. That’s important for the future of our nation because many of our space technology and geospatial intelligence products are on the cutting-edge, used by our customers to address a range of critical issues ⏤ from defending national security to helping mitigate the impacts of climate change.
What’s your best career advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?
Business is about people, so it’s important to always lead with empathy. I learned this as a student debater competing in the Lincoln-Douglas format, where over the course of one day you negotiate both sides of an argument. These debates helped me realize that there are always two sides to a story, and this realization has stayed with me my entire life.
Whether I’m deep in a business negotiation or helping guide a team member through a career discussion, I’m always conscious of the fact that I’m talking to another human being who has their own goals and motivations. I’m constantly thinking about what they want and trying to anticipate what they care about so that I help create a win-win situation. Lead with empathy, and you’ll find success, no matter what you do.