Business executive Reon Roski joins USC Board of Trustees

The USC Board of Trustees has elected attorney and businesswoman Reon Roski to join the board.

A graduate of USC and Loyola Law School, Roski is chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Majestic Realty, the largest privately held developer and owner of master-planned business parks in the United States.

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“We are delighted to welcome Reon to the ranks of our dedicated trustees,” said Suzanne Nora Johnson, chair of the USC Board of Trustees. “Reon and the entire Roski family have built a strong legacy of business excellence and community service. Reon’s business acumen, allegiance to and affection for the university, and strong legal, financial and real estate expertise will be valuable assets to serve the university.”

“Reon and the entire Roski family have built a strong legacy of business excellence and community service.”

— Suzanne Nora Johnson, USC Board of Trustees chair

“Reon Roski brings a unique perspective to our Board of Trustees: As a student, she studied and later worked in China; she leads a major real estate company dedicated to transforming communities; and she’s a highly skilled attorney,” USC President Carol L. Folt said. “Her impressive international business expertise coupled with her passion for USC will be invaluable as we continue to partner with our communities and implement our ambitious ‘moonshots.’”

Roski grew up a Trojan. Her grandfather, Russell D. Garner, and her parents, Edward P. Roski Jr. and Gayle Garner Roski, are USC alumni. Her parents met at USC, and their longtime support of the university includes naming gifts for the USC Gayle Garner Roski School of Art and Design and the USC Roski Eye Institute.

“My whole life has been around USC,” Reon Roski said. Of joining the Board of Trustees, she said, “It’s been a dream of mine.”

New trustee brings broad perspective

Roski brings a broad perspective to her new role, having seen the university from many angles — as a Trojan granddaughter and daughter, a student and then an alumna, and as a USC parent: Her four children — triplet sons, Austin, Bryce and Grant, 28; and daughter Ashley, 25 — are USC graduates.

“I know USC pretty well,” she said as an understatement.

She also can relate to the needs of USC’s international students: As an undergraduate, through a USC program, Roski was among the first Americans to study in China — an experience she followed with more study there and eventually a job working with the Chinese government on real estate issues. She is fluent in Mandarin.

“USC opened up the world to me through my whole life, so I’m happy to work on whatever they see fit and wherever they need help,” she said.

“President Folt is really trying to take USC to a higher level, which is wonderful.”

— Reon Roski, new USC trustee

Roski said she is especially eager to join the board as it supports Folt’s slate of moonshots, ambitious efforts that include launching the university’s Frontiers of Computing initiative, creating the next generation of health sciences, transforming USC Athletics, making USC a leader in all aspects of sustainability, and recruiting and retaining the most talented faculty, staff and students, and more.

“President Folt is really trying to take USC to a higher level, which is wonderful,” Roski said.

Leader in the business world

A member of Majestic Realty’s board since 1997, Roski joined the company as senior counsel and managing director in 2007. She is responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations and is instrumental in the continued growth of Majestic’s portfolio. Her grandfather founded the company, and her father is its current president and chairman of the board.

She previously worked as a highly respected real estate attorney for two Los Angeles-based law firms, where she managed numerous large, complex and innovative real estate transactions, averaging more than 18 million square feet of transactions per year.

Roski has been named one of the “Women at the Top” by Commercial Real Estate Women and one of Bisnow’s L.A. Power Women. She is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Chief Executives Organization, the Real Estate Roundtable and NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. She is a vice chair of the Board of Directors for Exposition Park and the California Science Center, and chair for the California Science Center Committee.

She is a member of the Board of Leaders for the USC Marshall School of Business, the USC President’s Leadership Council, the Board of Directors of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC and the Keck Medicine of USC Board of Councilors.

“I’ve really enjoyed being on the Keck board and listening to all the great innovations that the doctors are coming up with — in medicines and procedures and technology,” she said. “Maybe in the next lifetime I’ll come back as a doctor.”

She expects her business experience will be especially useful as she joins the Board of Trustees.

“I know how to run a company,” she said, adding that she will be particularly good as a sounding board on the major issues that come before the trustees.

“I just want to be there for USC,” she said.