Ken Swenson is currently a director and the chief financial officer and secretary of the nonprofit, tax-exempt organization Paddle Out Plastic, teaches two courses as a University of Southern California adjunct professor, and is engaged in the production of photographic works concerning ocean plastics.

Formerly a senior vice president and associate general counsel at Bank of America for 22 years, Swenson provided in-house legal services covering a broad range of activities and transaction types, including commercial real estate lending, community development lending and equity, syndicated lending, commercial loan workouts and foreclosures, foreclosed property management and disposition, leasing and sales of bank owned and bank leased properties, environmental investigations and remediations, premises health and safety, charitable grants and sponsorships, charitable foundation maintenance, sports sponsorships, corporate environmental responsibility programming and partnerships, domestic and international corporate purchasing, records management services, pre-litigation dispute resolution, general corporate services, and corporate and departmental program implementation and administration.

Prior to Bank of America, Swenson was vice president of real estate with Universal Studios, where he managed all legal aspects of the company’s major development projects for retail and themed entertainment, as well as the company’s real estate portfolio. Before joining Universal, he was a partner in a Los Angeles-based law firm doing secured transactions of all types and general real estate transactions work.

A graduate of the USC Gould School of Law (JD) and the USC School of International Relations (MA), he has served in a leadership capacity of several professional organizations, including as president and 11-year board member of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy and as chair and 10-year member of the editorial board of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine. He has taught semester-length courses on general real estate and on leasing, has been a frequent writer and speaker on matters of interest to business groups, trade associations, professional schools, bar associations and environmental organizations across the country, including for the ABA, California Bar Association, and Los Angeles County Bar Association.