James Petkun is START’s General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer. Petkun serves on the company’s executive team and oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance, transactions and M&A, data privacy, AI and cybersecurity, ethics and compliance, global labor and employment, litigation, and enterprise risk management. He also serves as Corporate Secretary, advising the Board of Directors on legal strategy across international operations and growth initiatives.

Petkun is a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, serving for 8 years as an Assistant United States Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. Petkun tried 65+ trials to verdict with the DOJ (25+ jury trials), argued appeals before the D.C. Circuit, and led hundreds of investigations in matters involving complex financial crimes, cybercrimes, fraud & corruption, and violent crimes. In recognition of his service, Petkun twice received DOJ Special Achievement Awards, received formal commendation from the FBI Director, and was nominated by the DOJ for the Director’s Award for Superior Performance.

Before joining START, Petkun was Head of Legal Affairs at Sun Pharma (NSE: SUNPHARMA), a global life sciences company with $6B in annual revenue, 40,000+ employees, and 40+ manufacturing facilities across 5 continents. Petkun was responsible for advising Sun and its subsidiaries including Taro Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TARO), Chattem Chemicals, SPARC, and Pharmalucense across the full set of legal functions. Petkun also is a former law firm litigation partner, where his practice focused on defending companies, boards of directors, and executives in complex civil and criminal litigation and related government investigations.