Nikias attends World Economic Forum Meeting


USC President C. L. Max Nikias returned last night from Davos, Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. Nikias participated in the meeting as a special guest of the Global University Leaders Forum, which consists of chief administrators from the world’s leading research universities who meet to help create the World Economic Forum’s agenda and address issues in areas of global policy importance.

According to its website, the Forum’s mission is to improve the state of the world by engaging 2,500 of the world’s top leaders through collaborative activities to shape global, regional and industry agendas. The meeting, which began on Tuesday and is ending today, was themed “Responsive and Responsible Leadership.”

On Jan. 18, Nikias took part in a GULF meeting where USC trustee and Salesforce CEO and Chairman Marc Benioff spoke as a guest.

In addition to his engagement with GULF, Nikias interacted with national and industry leaders and contributed an article on the role and future of online education to Agenda, an online publication of the World Economic Forum.

Nikias also met with several USC alumni such as Chengyu Fu, a graduate of USC’s petroleum engineering program. 

On Tuesday night, Nikias hosted a reception for Trojans and friends of the University at the Hotel Belvedere Steigenberger Davos, where he met CNN anchor and Trojan alumnus John Defterios, who was in Davos reporting on the meeting.