USC Board of Trustees welcomes new members Robert Bishop and Daniel Prince

The USC Board of Trustees on Wednesday welcomed veteran investment manager Robert Bishop of Impala Asset Management and trial attorney Daniel Prince of Paul Hastings law firm as new members of its prestigious ranks.

“Robert Bishop and Daniel Prince will bring tremendous expertise and perspective to the board,” USC President Beong-Soo Kim said. “Aside from their impressive backgrounds in finance and law, they are deeply committed to working alongside me to strengthen the Trojan Family and advance USC’s academic mission. We couldn’t be more excited to have them in these new roles.”

“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we are delighted to welcome Bob Bishop and Daniel Prince to the board,” USC Board of Trustees Chair Suzanne Nora Johnson said. “They significantly expand the local and national philanthropic networks and resources that will ensure USC can continue to compete, innovate and lead with excellence and distinction in the future.”

Bishop, who founded Impala Asset Management in 2004 and turned the company into a family office in 2022, brings more than two decades of investment and asset management leadership to his new role, and he hopes to help the university plan financially and strategically for a bright future.

“USC has a very strong board, and I believe in President Beong-Soo Kim’s vision and the direction he wants to move the school towards,” Bishop said. “I’d like to help the university in whatever way I can.”

Prince — a double Trojan who received his bachelor’s degree from USC in 2000 and his master’s degree in 2002 — joins the board after serving as president of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors for the past two years.

“This is an incredibly special opportunity and a full-circle moment for me,” Prince said. “I’ve always been a huge USC supporter, and to have the opportunity to be president of the Board of Governors was a huge honor. To progress to the Board of Trustees is something I would have never in my wildest dreams imagined.”

Also at the June 3 meeting, the board renewed the positions of USC Trustees David C. Bohnett, Stephen M. Keck, Shelly H. Nemirovsky and Tracy M. Sykes. Trustees Kathy Leventhal, Leonard D. Schaeffer (also Chair Emeritus of the USC Health System Board) and Jeffrey H. Smulyan became Life Trustees, while Marc R. Benioff, Patrick C. Haden and Wenxue Wang became Honorary Trustees.

An honorary Trojan

Bishop’s love of the Trojan Family and all things USC is decadeslong and runs deep. Despite growing up in Ohio and attending Northwestern University, Bishop is a lifelong fan of USC football and a strong believer in the power of sports to bring people together. He and his wife, Perri Bishop, who also works in the investment world, were among USC’s first cornerstone donors to support the soon-to-open Bloom Football Performance Center, a facility that will provide first-class care and resources for student-athletes while supporting recruitment and retention for USC athletic programs.

Whether visiting USC to watch a football game or to see his daughter during her years as a student at the university, Bishop said he is always impressed by the warmth of the Trojan Family.

“It’s a very special place where young adults are balancing studying hard with being part of a bigger college Trojan Family,” he said. “There’s a lot of joy that comes from not just succeeding in academics but also being in a great setting with great people. I’ve always loved the school, and the more I’ve gotten to know it and gotten involved, the more I see that there’s a lot of opportunity.”

Bishop’s past work experience includes a tenure as chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management, serving as a principal at Maverick Capital and working as managing director at Tiger Management, among other high-profile positions managing investments in industries such as manufacturing, commodities, transportation and energy. He hopes this experience in investment and helping large organizations make necessary changes for financial stability will be an asset to the board and the university.

“I think the priorities are being set well at USC and things are starting to move in the right direction — now it’s just a question of executing well,” he said. “Hopefully I can add to that on the financial side.”

A new world of possibility

When Prince came to USC in 1996, he had never stepped foot out of the state of California. The Los Angeles native came to the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism on a full-ride scholarship for his debate prowess in high school, and his experience as a member of the Trojan Debate Squad and as a USC student would open his eyes to a world of possibility, community and civic duty.

“Coming to USC is undoubtedly one of the best things that I could have ever done, and it paved the way to what I would end up going on to do in my legal career,” Prince said.

Prince originally planned to be a broadcast journalist, but a senior-year course in First Amendment law, in addition to his debate experience, planted the seeds for his award-winning legal career.

After earning his law degree from the University of Chicago in 2004, Prince immediately joined Paul Hastings, where he serves as a litigation partner and hiring partner for the firm’s downtown L.A. office.

Prince credits his sense of civic responsibility, which includes extensive pro bono work, to his time at USC serving as chair of the university’s Black Student Assembly and as a member of the Alpha Delta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Once he became a practicing lawyer, he served as president of the John M. Langston Bar Association of Los Angeles. “USC is famous for preaching about the importance of building relationships, and my life’s been a big testament to that,” Prince said. “I had great professors, great deans and people with whom I formed relationships that are still friends and still mentors.”

Prince began mentoring USC students early in his career. What began as small dinners and events with groups of students eventually progressed to his role on the Alumni Association Board of Governors.

“It was really about what I could do to make an impact,” Prince said. “That opened the door to me being reengaged with the university as a member of the alumni community.”

As a trustee, Prince plans to use his legal experience in “creatively identifying solutions” to help navigate the university in a landscape fraught with regulatory, political and financial considerations.

Navigating difficult times and looking ahead

Both new trustees acknowledged that this is a difficult time in higher education history and expressed confidence in Kim’s leadership.

“With President Kim coming on board, I think he sees both the challenges and the opportunities of this very interesting point in time,” Bishop said. “Challenges can bring the best out of universities, and I think that’s the opportunity here.”

“I’m super excited to give back to the university as much as I possibly can with my time, my treasure and my talent,” Prince said. “The board is a very special group of people, so it’s humbling to be at the table with those individuals and to really think about how to chart the course for the next great chapter of this university.”