Beong-Soo Kim will serve as USC’s 13th president, according to a community-wide email sent Wednesday. Kim has served as USC’s interim president since July 2025. The election by the Board of Trustees was unanimous.

In an interview with campus media, Kim said that while the presidency wasn’t something he was originally seeking when he was appointed interim president, he was grateful for the opportunity to have been approached by the Board of Trustees and was excited to step into the permanent role. 

“The experience leading the University, bringing so many Trojans together, getting so much done with the senior leadership team, really reinforced my view that USC has so much to offer the world,” Kim said. “I’m delighted that I’m going to be able to continue in this role, leading USC into a future of a lot of change, but even more opportunity.”

In seven months as interim president, Kim launched the USC Open Dialogue Project, an initiative to guide campus debate on controversial issues in a more civil direction. He also formed USC’s AI Strategy Committee to create guidelines for generative artificial intelligence in USC’s classrooms and decided that USC would continue taking legacy status into account in the admissions process. The Faculty Advisory Committee, a group of faculty who meet regularly with Kim to share their perspectives, was another one of Kim’s initiatives. 

Kim also ended an encampment-era policy which required students, faculty, staff and community members to scan their student ID or show their government ID to enter campus at all times. Under Kim, over 1,000 USC employees were also laid off as part of efforts to rectify USC’s over $200 million budget deficit. 

When Kim was announced as interim president in February 2025, Suzanne Nora Johnson, chair of the USC board of trustees, wrote that Kim would not be a candidate for the presidency so he could focus on his interim role. 

Kim said when he was appointed to the interim role, the Board of Trustees encouraged him to “not lead as an interim president, but as president for an interim period of time.” Kim said that because of this mindset, the change from a temporary to a permanent position was not that big of a transition.

“Even [as interim president], I was actually thinking with a very long-term view about how to strengthen USC’s foundations financially,” Kim said. “So that we could really thrive into the future.”

Kim previously served as general counsel and senior vice president at USC, beginning in 2020. Before coming to USC, Kim was a federal prosecutor, among other top legal roles.

In the interview, Johnson said Kim received an overwhelming number of nominations for the presidency after USC released the criteria for the next president, which led the Presidential Search Committee to ask Kim whether he would like to be considered for the presidency. 

“Students, faculty, deans, alumni, donors, parents — every category of person — kept reaching out, saying, ‘We have been inspired by his leadership. He has an extraordinary mind. He has extraordinary ethics. Why don’t you consider him in the process?’” Johnson said.  

Johnson said Kim was given no guarantee that he would be given the presidency, and that he went through the same interview process and background check as the other candidates. Johnson said Kim emerged as one of four finalists, and  the committee believed he was uniquely capable of leading USC through changes in technology, demographics and from the federal government.

“We really believed we needed a next-generation leader who could really advance the University in very different ways, given how much change is in the environment,” Johnson said. “We really believe [Kim] has the character and the value, the courage, the ethics, that we wanted to see in our next president.”

In a university-wide email, Kim wrote that he recognized skepticism surrounding USC’s ability to adapt to technological change and be open to new ideas, as well as its value as a research university. Kim wrote that these uncertainties were opportunities for the USC community to come together and “re-dedicate” itself to USC’s academic mission. 

“This is no time for complacency. Instead, we must continue focusing our financial planning around retaining and attracting the very best talent,” Kim wrote. “We must not be afraid to innovate and partner with others. And we must stay laser-focused on our mission of educating future leaders, advancing research and innovation, and serving our society.”