Roger Lynch, the chief executive officer of Condé Nast, will deliver this spring’s commencement keynote address for the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the school announced Monday morning.
Lynch was appointed in 2019 to lead the storied media company, whose portfolio comprises magazines including Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ and Architectural Digest. Under his leadership, Condé Nast has merged its American and international businesses and seen a growth in its video content.
Content from Condé Nast’s publications reaches 1 billion people globally across platforms.
Lynch is also a Trojan — he graduated from USC Dornsife in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in physics. Since then, his varied career has also included ventures in aerospace, technology and investment banking.
“The breadth and depth of my Dornsife education gave me the foundation to pursue opportunities I never could have imagined,” Lynch said in a statement. “I’m incredibly proud to be a part of this community — and excited to celebrate the graduates as they begin this next phase of their lives.”
Lynch’s involvement with USC has continued decades after his graduation. He volunteers on Dornsife’s Board of Councilors, a role in which he provides counsel to the school’s dean. In March 2023, he received an Alumni Merit Award from the university for his history of accomplishment and service.
After graduating from Dornsife, Lynch earned an MBA from Dartmouth College. He has led several companies as CEO, including music video and streaming networks — where he was awarded two Emmys — and the music service Pandora. He now serves on several boards, including at Dartmouth’s business school and the toy giant Mattel.
Lynch will deliver the speech to a similarly multi-hyphenate crowd. Dornsife is USC’s largest school and houses nearly 100 majors and over 90 minors in the arts, humanities and sciences. About two in five undergraduates are Dornsife students, and the school has almost 10,000 students in total. Dornsife will hold its commencement ceremony in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on May 16.