The installation ceremony for Anijo Matthew was held on Oct. 5 to celebrate his new role as dean of USC’s Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy. He replaced former dean Thanassis Rikakis, who stepped down in July 2025 and remains at IYA as a professor of arts, technology and the business of innovation, according to USC Today.
USC President Beong-Soo Kim, Provost Andrew T. Guzman and IYA founders Jimmy Iovine and Andre “Dr. Dre” Young attended Mathew’s official welcome.
“[Mathew] had a very clear initiative: to take IYA from the startup phase it has been in, and is still perceived to be in, to a bigger institution,” said Keanan Duffty, a lecturer in fashion innovation at IYA. “I mean physically bigger, but also bigger in its goals. We can’t be a startup forever. I’m quoting him on that point, and I think he’s absolutely right.”
Duffty has taught at IYA since 2023. According to the IYA website, Mathew has worked to combine design, technology and business to solve problems.
“Dean Mathew is fantastic,” Duffty said. “Aside from all the professional and academic weight he brings to the role, he’s a great person. He has a very positive, light touch. He’s extremely personable and has a great sense of humor.”
At his installation ceremony, as reported by USC, Mathew quoted Albus Dumbledore, a character from the “Harry Potter” series: “It’s our choices, Harry, that show us who we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
“Our choices matter,” Mathew said. “The choices we make together will decide what IYA becomes and what our graduates become.”
Mathew declined an interview with Annenberg Media. According to his public relations team, Mathew was not ready to discuss his long-term goals for the school.
Before his role at USC, Mathew served as dean of the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology and co-founded a digital design firm in India. He received his doctorate in design computing from The Open University in the United Kingdom after completing his master’s degree in design studies at Harvard University and a professional bachelor of architecture at the Birla Institute of Technology in India, according to the IYA website.
Sid Chowdury, a freshman studying business of innovation at IYA and USC Marshall School of Business, says the new dean often interacts with students.
“Having his experience in design is valuable to such a school, and he has a bunch of accolades,” Chowdury said. “He’s super nice and he’s super involved. Like I see him around the building and he’s just so happy to see you.”
Another student, Eve Nepo, who is studying arts, technology and the business of innovation at IYA, said she would like to see the dean preserve the school’s close-knit community as it grows.
“I do think IYA has hit its peak. Like we’ve grown a lot, and I think right now the main problem is we’re trying to figure out how to keep that small-like cohort style learning with these big numbers coming in,” she said.
Tina Sharkey, a lecturer in business of innovation at IYA, expressed similar thoughts about the school’s close-knit community and said Mathew has the experience needed to continue the school’s growth.
“He really understands all three worlds that define the academy, which is design, technology, and business. He’s an entrepreneur. He’s an educator, and he’s a proven institutional builder. That’s an incredibly powerful combination,” she said.
“The academy was founded on an audacious idea by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, and Dean Mathew really understands how to honor that founding vision while building the right systems, and right partnerships, and the right institutional capacity to take it to the next level. So we have an opportunity to really codify our leadership as a model for higher education under his leadership,” she continued.
Sharkey said she believes IYA will continue to grow under Mathew’s leadership.
“We can codify what makes it so special while managing the need to scale our impact and then continually demonstrate why this model matters more than ever in order to get our students ready to be the leaders in the future of work,” she said.
Edited by Natalie Cerna