Ken Masters is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Lateral Investment Management, a direct- lending firm for mid-market companies, and is Board Chair and Co-Owner of Lumera, a private equity and project finance firm focused on infrastructure investment in the United States. Ken is considered a leading mind in the corporate credit markets. From 2007-2012, he was Co-Founder and Co-Portfolio Manager at White Oak Global Advisors, a middle market direct-lending firm based in San Francisco with reported AUM of $1.5 billion. From 2004-2006, Ken was a director at KKR Financial LLC, the credit arm of global private equity firm KKR. While at KKR Financial LLC, Ken assessed and underwrote more than $1 billion in loans to middle market companies across the insurance, media, pharmaceutical, franchise and other low beta industries including project finance and structured finance. Prior to KKR Financial LLC, Ken was a senior investment analyst for the High- Yield and Fixed Income Portfolio Group at Franklin Templeton from 2000 to 2004 where he led the representation of Franklin Templeton in distressed situations, including WorldCom, MCI, Charter Communications, Adelphia, McCloud, Global Crossing, and XO Communications. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard University (class of 2000), and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.