Karen King is a Managing Director of Silver Lake, the world’s leading large-scale technology investment firm, with over $100 billion in assets under management and committed capital. Silver Lake differentiates itself from other investment firms by focusing its resources on investing in and cultivating market leading businesses specifically in and around the technology industry, with deep sector experience and an unparalleled network of relationships throughout the tech ecosystem. Silver Lake also invests in sports and entertainment. The Firm is co-headquartered in Silicon Valley and New York.
Corporate Board Roles
Karen is an independent director of the public company, Franklin Resources (aka Franklin Templeton), a global leader in asset management founded in New York in 1947. She serves on both the Audit Committee and the Compensation Committee.
In addition, Karen is a member of the Boards of Relativity, the leading legal intelligence data platform, Qualtrics, the category creator of XM or experience management, and Endeavor, the global sports and entertainment platform.
Previously, Karen served on the Board of Aras, an enterprise software provider of product life cycle management (PLM) solutions, and Serena Software, an SEC registered enterprise level IT application development and deployment solutions provider.
Karen also served on the Legal Committee of the Board of Skype Technologies and oversaw the settlement and negotiation of bet-the-company litigation with the founders of the company over the rights to the company’s core technology. The securing of those IP rights yielded Skype’s investors, including Silver Lake, significantly more value in the company’s subsequent sale to Microsoft.
Silver Lake Career
Karen joined Silver Lake over 22 years ago and she has been involved in countless major transactions for the firm ever since. Regularly called upon to help solve difficult, complicated, and sensitive matters, Karen frequently advises directors and senior management of many of Silver Lake’s portfolio companies. She has been involved in multiple acquisitions, divestitures, financings, IPO processes, intellectual property litigations, investigations, responses to activist initiatives, restructurings, and various other major and often complex events at numerous companies.
Karen has had a myriad of responsibilities at Silver Lake, including currently as Chief Operating Officer. As Chief Legal Officer, she previously oversaw a global legal and compliance team who are immersed in all aspects of the firm’s business, from fundraising to deal execution to portfolio company monitoring and liquidity. She has also served in the additional capacity of Silver Lake’s Global Head of Talent and HR as well as interim Global Head of Communications in addition to her other duties. And she co-oversees the Firm’s Government Relations function.
Karen is involved in all of Silver Lake’s business units, including its flagship $20B fund that invests in large-scale tech and tech-enabled companies, its structured equity and debt fund targeting the same opportunity set, and its newer private wealth channel fund.
Additional Experience
Karen came to Silver Lake from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where she advised on disclosure, corporate governance, and securities law for public companies, as well as capital markets transactions and domestic and cross-border M&A. She spent time in each of STB’s New York and London offices and then helped open Simpson’s Palo Alto office in 2000.
Through her work overseas, particularly while stationed in London, and her engagement with Silver Lake’s portfolio companies and investors in places like Luxembourg and the Middle East, Karen has had ample experience in international business. Karen is half-Japanese and went to middle school in Tokyo. She also studied abroad in Berlin in college and received a certificate in German.
In addition to her role at Silver Lake, Karen is a member of Broadway Angels, a network of senior established women who invest in early-stage opportunities through a collective syndicate. In addition, she is actively involved with the Operator Collective, a consortium of operating executives who have combined their talents, resources, and networks as investors.
Recognized as a “Woman of Achievement” by Legal Momentum, Karen has also been named to the “GC Powerlist” by Legal 500 and as a “Woman Leader in Tech Law” by the Recorder. She was also profiled in Penn Law’s: “Women Leaders in Law and Business: Trailblazers, Innovators, and Disrupters in the Law.” In addition, she was named by PE Hub as one of ten women who are smashing through private equity’s glass ceiling.
Education/Other Board Roles
Karen earned her bachelor’s degree in Public Policy Studies from Duke University, where she serves on the Board of Trustees. Previously, she served on the Board of Visitors for Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the Board of Visitors for Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy. And she is very involved with the Athletic Department.
Karen is also a graduate of Harvard Law School, where she and her husband were Co-Chairs for their 25th reunion and serve on the Northern California Advisory Board. She also serves on the Executive Advisory Board of the Berkeley Center for Law & Business.
Karen was a Trustee and the Chair of the Board of Menlo School. Karen was also Chair of the Board of the American Leadership Forum – Silicon Valley (ALF). In addition, she has also served on the Silicon Valley Leadership Council of the Global Fund for Children. And she previously served on the Investment Committee for Sacred Hearts Schools – Atherton. Karen and her husband are also Trustees of the U. S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation.
Karen lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband Greg, who was previously the General Counsel of Veritas Technologies. They have a son, Charlie, who is a junior at Duke University. Their daughter, Caroline, graduated from Duke and now teaches fifth grade at Chadwick International School in Seoul, Korea. They also have two Alaskan Klee Kais (or miniature huskies) named Kodi and Momo.