C. L. Max Nikias
Chrysostomos Loizos "Max" Nikias (Greek: Χρυσόστομος Λοΐζος Νικίας; born September 30, 1952) is a Cypriot-American academic, and served as the 11th University of Southern California president, a position he held from August 3, 2010, to August 7, 2018. He holds the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities and is president emeritus of the university. He had been at USC since 1991, as a professor, director of national research centers, dean, provost, and president. He also served as chair of the College Football Playoff (CFP) Board of Managers (2015-2018) as chair of the board of the Keck Medical Center at USC (2009-2018), as member of the board of directors of the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering (2001-2018), and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Chadwick School, an independent school in Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif. (2001-2010). He is currently a tenured professor in electrical engineering with a secondary appointment in classics, and the director of the USC Institute for Technology Enabled Higher Education.
C. L. Max Nikias | |
|---|---|
| 11th President of the University of Southern California | |
| In office August 3, 2010 – August 7, 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Steven Sample |
| Succeeded by | Carol Folt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Chrysostomos Loizos Nikias September 30, 1952 Komi Kebir, Cyprus |
| Spouse |
Niki (m. 1977) |
| Children | 2 daughters |
| Alma mater | National Technical University of Athens, University at Buffalo |
| Profession | Electrical engineering, Higher education, Academic administration |
In May 2018, 200 tenured USC professors (out of about 1,181 tenured faculty) demanded Nikias's resignation for how his administration dealt with nearly 300 incidents of sexual assault and sexual misconduct allegations over 27 years against a longtime student health center gynecologist, George Tyndall. He and the board of trustees agreed to an orderly transition to a new president on May 25, 2018, and he stepped down on August 7, 2018. Following this, Nikias was named president emeritus and a life trustee of the university. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights' independent investigation concluded with a report published in February 2020 and did not implicate Nikias or his predecessor in any specific wrongdoing.
Nikias served on the board of directors of Synopsys, Inc., (NASDAQ: SNPS), an S&P 500 semiconductor chips company from 2011-2023, where he chaired its compensation committee. Nikias is the current President of the Advisory Board of the Council for International Relations – Greece. He lectures and moderates panels on the geopolitical storms surrounding semiconductor chips and their supply chain, as well as on cybersecuring democratic elections. He also lectures on the promises of economic growth and ethical dilemmas of artificial intelligence (AI), and on Xenophon's Cyropaedia: The Art and Adventure of Leadership.