Ascent CEO Ken Ruggiero

Ken Ruggiero

Co-Founder & CEO

Ken is a veteran and innovator in education finance with more than 20 years spent leading teams that create meaningful change and positive returns for students, schools, employees and investors. During his tenure at Goal Financial, from 2003-2007, the company originated more than $8 billion of private and government guaranteed student loans, becoming a top 10 student-loan provider in the country.

After the company’s exit from the lending space in 2008, Ken founded Goal Solutions and eventually, Goal Investment Group, a family of financial technology companies which serve the consumer finance market.

Goal Solutions services and manages over $26 billion in consumer loans. Since 2013, Goal Investment Management has invested over $240 million of its capital in over 60 transactions.

Ken Ruggiero talking

Since 2015, Ken has served as Co-Founder and CEO of Ascent, a student focused education finance company which seeks to revolutionize the way students plan, pay, and succeed in school. Ascent has made over $1.6B of loans to more than 168,000 students* attending U.S. colleges and skills training programs.

Ken received his B.B.A from the University of Massachusetts and his M.B.A from Columbia University.

Ascent Team 2025

*Over 168,000 borrowers took out an Ascent loan for college or career training tuition or expenses between January 2018 and November 2025.