Presidential Search

Dear Trojan Family,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and upon the recommendation of the Presidential Search Committee, we are writing to share that Beong-Soo Kim has been unanimously elected the 13th President of the University of Southern California. He will assume the role effective immediately.

Beong has a strong personal connection to USC. Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, he is the son of two USC international graduate students from Korea. He attended local public schools before graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College. He earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and his law degree from Harvard Law School. Beong has taught constitutional interpretation at Harvard as well as trial advocacy at the National Advocacy Center, and served as an adjunct professor at the USC Gould School of Law.

Beong first joined USC as its senior vice president and general counsel in 2020. Before that, he held senior management roles at Kaiser Permanente, was a partner at an international law firm, and served in the U.S. Department of Justice. During his time at USC, Beong has worked closely with the Board of Trustees, the senior leadership team, USC’s academic deans and faculty, and alumni around the world to advance USC’s mission of academic excellence, pioneering research, and service to society. He played a key role in establishing the current medical enterprise organization and its governing model. He has also been significantly involved in USC’s athletics programs, where he served as a member of the department’s interim leadership team in 2023. As a classical cellist trained by two esteemed USC faculty members, Eleonore and Alice Schoenfeld, he holds a deep-seated belief in the power of the arts to expand human empathy, understanding, and community.

As a leader, Beong is a bridge builder who genuinely values collaboration, transparency, and openness. As Interim President, he engaged over 5,000 faculty and staff, convening more than 40 town halls to hold active dialogues and listen to their perspectives. He secured transformational gifts and research partnerships to expand the university’s national and global presence. At the same time, he made tough and critical decisions to fortify the university’s financial position. He has consistently held himself accountable for the university’s actions and assumed responsibility for complex and difficult situations. He also has a track record of sharing credit and promoting the positive achievements of others. Throughout it all, he has held academic excellence as his guiding principle, with a profound belief in the impact and importance of higher education to our society — from the arts and humanities to science, engineering, business, and health.

Together with the USC Alumni Association, he supported the reactivation of our regional alumni networks, engaging alumni around the world to become mentors and employers for students, partners in research, and champions for the university. Beong understands the power of our lifelong and worldwide Trojan Family – over 500,000 strong – whose respect, unity, and care for one another has distinguished USC since our founding in 1880.

Beong has established a strong foundation of integrity and trust. With his unwavering commitment to USC’s core values, we are confident he is the right leader to guide USC toward achieving its ambitious goals – not only in research and academics, but also in helping to bridge divides and serve as a model of decency and mutual respect in our society.

We want to express our gratitude to our entire USC community for your active engagement in the search process. With more than 8,000 responses to our survey and over 1,000 participants in our listening sessions, your voices and aspirations inspired our deliberations. Thank you as well to the Presidential Search Committee, who showed great dedication, thoroughness, and conscientiousness throughout this process.

Finally, we appreciate the exceptional candidates who participated in our search process. We are pleased to have established new relationships with a group of outstanding leaders who give us great optimism for the future of higher education.

Please join us in congratulating Beong-Soo Kim on his appointment as the 13th President of the University of Southern California.

Together and united, we will always Fight On!

Sincerely,

Suzanne Nora Johnson
Chair, USC Board of Trustees

David Bohnett
Vice Chair, USC Board of Trustees

Carmen Nava
Co-chair, Presidential Search Committee

Mark Stevens
Co-chair, Presidential Search Committee