A former university president whose eight-year tenure included a record fundraising campaign and ended amid a campus scandal will discuss the memoir he wrote about all of it Saturday afternoon at Vroman’s Bookstore.
C. L. Max Nikias, who served as the 11th president of the University of Southern California from 2010 to 2018, will appear at the Colorado Boulevard bookstore to discuss and sign “American Trojan: Leadership, Resilience, and the Renewal of Higher Education.” The 456-page book, published in March by Encounter Books, traces Nikias’ path from Cyprus — where the 1974 Turkish invasion destroyed his family’s holdings — through an engineering career and into the presidency of one of California’s largest private universities. Nikias stepped down in August 2018 amid criticism of the university’s handling of a scandal involving former campus gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall. Rick Caruso, then chairman of the USC Board of Trustees, said at the time that investigations had “found absolutely no wrongdoing on Max’s part,” according to NBC News.
The book spans Nikias’ full arc. Born Chrysostomos Loizos Nikias in 1952 in the village of Komi Kebir, Cyprus, he earned an engineering diploma from the National Technical University of Athens in 1977 before completing a master’s degree and doctorate in electrical engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He joined USC’s faculty in 1991 and held a succession of positions — founding director of a National Science Foundation research center, dean of the Viterbi School of Engineering, provost — before assuming the presidency.
During his eight years leading USC, Nikias oversaw a $6 billion fundraising campaign that, at the time of its launch, was the largest in the history of higher education, according to USC’s biography of the president emeritus. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The book’s subtitle references “renewal” in higher education. According to the publisher’s description, the book offers recommendations for how universities can “reclaim their true mission of transmitting knowledge and cultivating young minds.”
Promotional endorsements provided by Encounter Books include blurbs from former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who called Nikias “a fantastic leader,” and retired General David Petraeus, former director of the CIA, who described the book as “an inspiring account of how a brilliant young engineer from Cyprus came to embody the American dream.” Former National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien wrote that the memoir “is the story of the American dream,” adding that “Max Nikias arrived here with nothing but smarts and charm from his old world, home country, which was in the midst of a terrible war.”
The event takes place at Vroman’s Bookstore, founded in 1894 and recognized as Southern California’s oldest and largest independent bookstore. Vroman’s notes on its events page that “a purchase of the book from Vroman’s is greatly appreciated and makes events like this possible.” The hardcover retails for $39.99.
Nikias currently holds the title of president emeritus and Life Trustee at USC, where he also maintains faculty appointments in electrical engineering and classics.
C. L. Max Nikias discusses and signs “American Trojan: Leadership, Resilience, and the Renewal of Higher Education,” Saturday, June 13, 2026, 3 p.m. Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. The hardcover is $39.99. For more, call (626) 449-5320 or visit vromansbookstore.com.
