Presidential Search

Dear Trojan Family,

It is with great appreciation and trust that we extend a warm welcome to Beong-SooKim, who will serve as our president on an interim basis beginning today.

USC has always been more than an institution of higher education; it is a home where academic achievement, thoughtful dialogue and mutual understanding flourish. At a time when the national discourse often turns divisive, we remain focused on fostering an environment which reflects what makes us distinctive: ourability to treat one another with genuine respect and understanding and to welcome all perspectives and experiences. This is who we are as a Trojan Family, and it is a tradition that we cherish and want to protect.

Beong steps into this role following five years serving as USC’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel. He has built meaningful relationships and worked collaboratively with the university’s board, deans, faculty and staff. He has also engaged actively with members of our alumni community—understanding our alumni community firsthand as the son of two parents who studied at USC. He has also dedicated time to serve our community—his free musical concerts outside his homein Pasadena during the COVID-19 pandemic with his wife, Bonnie Wongtrakool, are legendary.

He truly believes that we are in this together. As an adjunct professor at the law school, he has personally experienced the academic excellence and dedication of our faculty and staff and the vibrancy and promise of our students. He exemplifies our values and shares our vision for the future. This, along with his principled character and ethical foundation, make him uniquely qualified to shepherd through this transition.

Building on his natural spirit of partnership, we know that Beong is eager to engage with all of the members of our university community—to hear your ideas, to understand your priorities and to work together to achieve our shared goals. Under Beong’s capable leadership, the board has every confidence that USC will seamlessly build on our remarkable legacy at this moment.

While the USC Presidential Search Committee, ably led by Trustees Carmen Nava and Mark Stevens, continues its thoughtful and important work to find and recruit our next president, we remain focused on what always guides us: doing what is best for USC and doing all that we can to safeguard and ensure its future.

Although we face challenges and consequences from changes in governmental policies, there are even more opportunities before us. It is our mutual pledge to keep you informed of our actions undertaken to adapt to this changing landscape in higher education and of the efforts made to capitalize on the strengths of USC. We believed deeply in the value of USC, in US institutions of higher learning and in the transformative power of education and medicine. We continue to believe that we have a critical responsibility to use the fundamental pillars of research, teaching and patient care to better our communities, our country and our world. We have enormous confidence for the future, and we are fortunate to have someone as dedicated, public-spirited, selfless and accomplished as Beong to lead the way.

We hope that you will join us in welcoming and supporting Beong in his new role.

We continue to have immense faith in the ability and spirit of the Trojan Family to Fight On strong and united.