Jonathan D. Avila serves as Assistant General Counsel, Chief Trust Officer of The Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California. Mr. Avila provides data privacy law counseling and compliance for the domestic and international operations of Disney's offline and online businesses. Prior to joining Disney in 2001, Mr. Avila was General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer of Mvalue.com, Inc., a venture capital-funded Internet company. Mr. Avila also has served as Litigation Counsel to CBS Broadcasting, Inc., where he represented CBS in privacy litigation related to CBS' news broadcasting activities.
Mr. Avila has served as President of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and has served as a member of the Governing Committee of the Forum on Communications Law of the American Bar Association. Mr. Avila is a co-author of Privacy Compliance and Litigation in California, published by a consortium of the University of California and the California State Bar. Mr. Avila also serves on the Board of Directors of the Imagen Foundation, a non-profit entity devoted to fostering positive portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment media.
Mr. Avila graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, and received a J.D. from the Harvard Law School in 1984. Mr. Avila also holds a diploma from the University of Salamanca (Spain).